The Sliders Series
by Dixxy Mouri
Summary: After Kyle and Alex do something stupid, the gang find themselves working for a very upset Keeper of the Realms. Will eventually be a giant cross-over spanning multiple series. HIATUS.
1. Episode One

Episode One- Happily Ever After?

"Burg is so near, Alex," said Luna, resting her head on Alex's shoulder. "How much longer are we going to have to stay on this stupid boat?"

Alex sighed. "Another day or so. We've only been out to sea for a few hours!"

"I know, but I miss everyone," she said. The two were on a ship headed for Saith, which was a fairly easy walk back to Burg, their hometown. Well, Alex's home town. Luna was. . . special. 

"Alex! I'm hungry! When are we gonna eat??"

Alex turned to see the ever impatient Nall hovering behind him. "Go find the captain. He said free food for anyone who helped save Lunar."

"YAY! FISH!" said Nall, zipping off to get the promised food. The young lovers laughed as the small dragon zipped off to find the captain. The captain had been more than generous to give all of the Five Heroes and Luna free passage on his boat. The friends figured that at most those on the main continent would need to use that. Alex and Luna could easily fly with Nall.

"Well, it's good to know things will be getting back to normal," said Luna. "We had fun, but I want to rest before we do anything else like that."

Alex grinned. "I want another adventure, but yeah, not just yet. Kyle and I were already talking about looking for unexplored caverns in the Saylan Desert," he said.

Luna's eyes widened. "The Saylan Desert!? Alex, no, no, and no! Kyle can go get himself killed but you are staying in Burg!"

"Aw, but Luna, I was a Dragonmaster!" said Alex.

"WERE a Dragonmaster," said Luna. "You aren't a Dragonmaster anymore, so you can't go getting yourself killed!"

"It's not like I'd be going alone!" said Alex. "Kyle has magic and-"  
"Alex, no means no, you're staying in Burg!" she said.

"But you just-"

"This discussion is over," she said.

"But Jessica, Alex and –"

Jessica fumed at her fiancé, folding her arms. "Kyle, we're getting married in three months. During that time I would prefer it if you DIDN'T die on me!"

"But I'm not gonna die! We took care of Ghaleon, so how bad is Saylan Desert gonna be?" pleaded Kyle.

"It's unexplored terrain! Who knows what lurks out there?" said Jessica.

"But you used to love adventures!" said Kyle.

Jessica sighed heavily. "Not this one, Kyle."

"Aw, but Jessica-" 

"I'll bet Luna told Alex the same thing," said Jessica. "The Saylan Desert is REALLY dangerous."

Kyle knew the fight was futile. He would need to just give up and forget about going on anymore adventures, or, sneak out behind Jessica's back. Then he'd need a way to sneak Alex away from Luna. But how was he going to do that?

An idea hit his head. "Um, Jessica?"

"I said no, Kyle."

"Actually, I was just gonna go get a beer. Mind if I go to Black Rose Street and pick up Nash? The guy needs a vacation anyways," said Kyle.

Jessica raised an eyebrow. "I thought you and Nash didn't like each other!"

"Well, you aren't big on beers and I don't think Mia's much of a drinker, so it's either Mel or Nash," said Kyle.

"I don't think Nash is much better," said Jessica.

"Do I really want to go drinking with your father? Remember the last time he got drunk and started dancing naked on the roof of the mansion?"

Jessica's decision was obvious. "Bring Nash."

"Kyle, what are you doing dragging me to bar?" asked Nash. The much smaller mage was bewildered why Kyle, who often spoke of killing him was dragging him to a bar to go drinking. "I'm a bit of a lightweight, Kyle. Last time I went drinking I got sick all over the Grand Hall."

"We're not going to be drinking, Nash. We're plotting," said Kyle.

"Plotting?" asked Nash. "What are you plotting?"

"You see, Jess told me that I couldn't go exploring the Saylan Desert with Alex, so I need to sneak out behind her back," said Kyle. "That's where you come in."

Nash sighed. "What do you want me to do?"

"You know of anything that can be used to teleport people long distances?" said Kyle.

"Yes, but Mia will get mad," said Nash, scratching his head. 

Kyle shook his head. "That's part of the point! We are men. Well, I'm a man and you and Alex are still boys since you aren't exactly eighteen yet, but we can't get bossed around by our girls! It's our manly duty to do this!"

Nash knew that arguing with Kyle wasn't going to go anywhere. Kyle might try to bring him to a burlesque house next, which would cause Mia to skin him alive. "All right, I'll do it. Follow me. Lemia has a few of these high-powered dragonfly wings left over from an experiment she tried. They should be like one-time use White Dragon Wings."

"We'll need at least three or four of them, since we need to go to Burg, from Burg, to the Saylan Desert, and back from the Saylan Desert," said Kyle. "This is gonna be great! You can come, too."

"Oh joy," said Nash. "I'll get eaten alive!"

"You'll just electrocute all the monsters! Or shoot them up with your arrows," said Kyle. "It'll be FUN."

Nash stood up as the two left the Seagull Tavern. "Every inn on Black Rose Street has been booked up with citizens of Vane. It's very crowded and can get loud when wizards screw up."

"Screw up?"

"Abra kadabra KA-BOOM."

"Oh, I get it. Cool!" said Kyle. "Any KA-POWS!?"

Nash sighed heavily. "This is going to be a LONG journey."

"Oh, get some thick skin and build up some muscle. Maybe Mia will LIKE a big, brave, strong man," said Kyle, flexing an arm. "If you go on this adventure, you might put some muscle under your skin."

Nash lifted his arm and frowned at the skinny arm under his tunic sleeve. "Maybe, but I don't know. . ."

"Do it and I'll send my men from Nanza to the Vane relief effort."

"Deal."

Meanwhile, in Burg, Alex was going into withdrawal. But Luna was oddly happy that Alex was staying at home. Confused as to why he refused to come out of the closet, but happy, none the least. 

"Alex, aren't you hungry?" asked Nall, banging his paw against the door to create a slight tapping sound.

"No, I'm depressed, Nall."

"But you gotta eat!"

"I'm going through withdrawal."

"Well come out of withdrawal! Whatever that is! Just come on! Your mom made curry."

"Mom's curry gives me gas."

"Alex! That's gross!"

"Well, it DOES. . ."

"Yeah, she does use a lot of beans. Beans, beans, the musical fruit, the more you eat, the more you-"

"NALL!"

"Coming, Luna," said Nall. Before he left, he whispered the word "toot". Then he began singing the other verse. "Beans, beans, they're good for your heart, the more you eat, the more you-"

"NNAALLLL!!!!"

"Eiyp. Bye!"

SMACK! DONG!

"My aim's getting better with the frying pan, isn't it, Alex?" said Luna. 

"I didn't eat all the fish, Luna, it was Nash, I swear it," Nall mumbled from his crumpled position on the floor. "I'm going to bed. I'm not hungry anymore."

"Alex, please come out of the closet."

"Mr. Sock and I are having a conversation, you're not invited," said Alex.

Luna frowned. "This is serious."

KNOCK-KNOCK!

"Come in!" yelled Luna.

"Why hello, madame, I'm here as a traveling salesperson, may I please speak to the man of the house?" asked a rather short salesmen and his rather tall friend. Both wore big cloaks and funny looking black mustaches. They also wore dark glasses and seemed almost familiar.

"Alex's father is away," said Luna.

"Alex will do," said the taller salesperson.

"He's speaking with a sock in the closet," said Luna. "He can't-"

"DEAR ALTHENA HE NEEDS OUR PRODUCT!" said the shorter of the two. "This product you see, is good for blending, sewing, washing clothes, drying clothes, slicing, dicing, sautéing, broiling, julienne, grinding flour, and ESPECIALLY bringing depressed boyfriends out of withdrawal.."

Luna smiled. "Please, please talk to him!"

"Thank you, ma'am," said the taller of the two. "We will join 'Alex' and his sock in the closet."

The other salesman sniffed the air. "Is. . . something burning?"

"THE CURRY! Oh no, now I have to go out and buy something else to eat!" said Luna. The former Goddess darted to the stove, only to find it was too late. After disposing of the ruined curry, she prepared to leave. She grabbed a small bag on a table near the door, preparing to rush out. "Please, please fix Alex! I need to go!"

The salesmen exchanged looks. "Perfect," said the taller salesman. "Alex!"

"Kyle? What are you doing here?" asked Alex. "Would you like to meet Mr. Sock?"

"We're here to- Mr. Sock?" asked the shorter salesman, obvious Nash at this point.

"He hasn't gotten his doctorate yet, Nash. But he will then be Dr. Sock," explained Alex.

"Should we drag him to the men in the white coats before going away?" asked Kyle.

"He'll be fine, let's get him out of there first," said Nash, opening the closet. He then yelped. "Alex! You're wearing. . . you're wearing one of Luna's dresses!"

"And her make-up," said Kyle. "And you're talking to a sock!"

"Mr. Sock is my friend," explained Alex.

"He's snapped. Let's go bring him to the springs and throw him into it. Bring a change of clothes and his weapons," said Nash. 

"If that doesn't work?"

"Maybe if I cast a Confuse spell on him or something," said Nash. "That or Thunderbolt him."

"Either works. Come on."

After saving Alex from the brink of insanity, Kyle explained his plan to the former Dragonmaster. "Kyle? Nash? I love you guys," said Alex. "Luna is going to be so mad!"

"Isn't that bad?" said Nash.

"Nah, it's funny, she can't DO anything," said Alex, grinning to himself. After the boys equipped themselves with their weapons and special armors, Nash brought out the tiny green wings they'd use to transport themselves across Lunar. 

"What exactly is that?" asked Alex. 

"It's called a Green Dragon Wing. They're almost like the White Dragon Wings, but you can only use them once," said Kyle. "They're really neat. But be warned, Nash screwed up the first time and we ended up in some ugly woman's room."

"I don't think I ever want to be in contact with that much blubber for the rest of my life," said Nash, shuddering.

"She thought he was a one of those teleporting Chip N' Dales Dancers," said Kyle.

"I'm going to do Nash a favor by not asking," said Alex. "All right, we're off to the Saylan Desert!"

"Bring us to the Saylan Desert!" said Nash. In a bright flash of green, they were gone.

"This is absolutely PATHETIC!" said Nash. "I KICKED one of the monsters and it died!" The Saylan Desert had proved to be not much of a challenge to the traveling boys. Alex sighed heavily. It wasn't much of an adventure after all.

"Ho, ho, Alex!"

"Laike? Laike's in the Saylan Desert?" said Kyle. "Hi Dyne!"

"My name is no longer Dyne," said the former Dragonmaster Dyne. "I simply came here to explore. Now why are the three of you out here?"

"Well, Alex and I had talked about exploring this pathetic excuse for a monster-filled wasteland when Jessica and Luna kind of said 'no'," explained Kyle.

"Kyle talked Nash into helping us sneak out, although they had a close call when they went to get me," said Alex.

"What kind of a close call?" asked Laike, raising an eyebrow.

"He went into a serious case of withdrawal," said Nash."

"How bad?"  
"He was wearing Luna's clothes and talking to a sock," said Kyle.

Laike stared in shock at Alex. "I have no idea what to say. Sounds to me like they almost lost you."

Kyle nodded. "Nearly. So, how have you been?"

"All right, I'm considering coming out to Lemia and Mel that I'm-"

"You're GAY!?"

"No, Nash, that I'm alive," said Laike. "I phrased that wrong, didn't I? Well, I certainly hope you three understand that Luna, Jessica, and Mia are going to kill the three of you."

"We know, but what they don't know can't hurt us. You see, we'll tell them we decided to go to some other place. . . like Pao to visit Tempest or something," said Kyle.

"Devious, isn't he?" said Nash. "Well, see you, Laike!"

"Bye, Laike!" said Kyle. "Hey, Nash, see that rock over there? I'll race ya!"

"You know I can run faster than you, you ignoramus!"

"HEY! GET BACK HERE!"

"Good day, Laike," said Alex, taking off after his friends. "HEY! WATCH IT! WE ONLY HAVE SO MANY HEALING NUTS!"

That night, their camp was quiet, the crackling of the fire being the only sound. All three travelers stared up at the sky and the Blue Star, each lost in his own thoughts.

_A beer would be nice right about now. . . nah, I want whiskey! No, wine. But then again a martini would be good, too. . ._

I wonder if a simple levitation spell would get Vane to fly- no, we tried that already. What about asking Myght for a bunch of high-powered engines?

Well, Luna and I missed the festival this year thanks to the crisis, but is it too late to possibly play in Meribia?

"Squawk. . ."

"Huh? What was that?" asked Nash, bolting upright.

"I heard it, too," said Kyle. The boys were at their feet. Kyle and Alex were ready with their swords and Nash had an arrow notched and ready to shoot. "I don't see anything. But I know I heard a bird."

"There's a black dot in the distance," said Alex. "You can see it over the Blue Star."

"Yeah, I see it, too," said Nash. "It's getting bigger."

"It's coming our way," said Kyle. His eyes widened. "Uh oh."

"Uh oh what?" said Nash.

"That's a Terracon," said Kyle. "They're giant, man-eating birds."

"How do you know that?" asked Alex. His eyes widened to see Kyle had suddenly begun to shake nervously. He was scared. "Kyle?"

"Wh, when I was, four, one, one of those, those things, took, took off with my, my, my mother," he said. "I, I never, never saw her, her, I never, never saw her again."

"Um, should we run?" said Nash.

"Get, it, get it away form me!" said Kyle.

"Let's GO!" said Alex. The three boys began to scream and run away. The giant bird screeched and dove in.

"IT GOT ME!" screamed Nash. Past of his tunic had been caught on the great, green bird's talon. It began to lift off, Nash slightly passed panicked.

"HEY! LET HIM GO!" said Alex. He drew his sword and gave out a battle cry.

"BEHIND YOU!"

Alex looked behind him just in time for the bird's beak to catch him by the front of his shirt. "KYLE! HELP US!"

Kyle stared up at his friends, frozen solid again. The bird squawked again, wrapping its talons around Kyle before he could react. They three were then whisked away, into the night.

"I'm going to kill him, I'm going to kill him, I'm going to STRANGLE THAT DUMB BASTARD!" said Jessica, pacing back and fourth in Mel's mansion. After Jessica and Mia had run into each other, both realizing that they both had a missing significant other, had come to the conclusion that Kyle had dragged Nash into his plot to go to the Saylan Desert. When Luna had flown in on the back of Nall, stating that Alex had vanished after two strange salesmen came to their house, they realized it had (somehow) been Nash and Kyle. And finally, when Laike decided to confront Mel with his secret, he told the worried girls where their friends were located.

"Is that your pet name for Kyle?" asked Mia.

"No, I'M ANGRY WITH HIM!" said Jessica. "Laike, how did you get here form the Saylan Desert so fast?"

"Green Dragon Wings," he said. 

"Ugh, Kyle must have gotten them from Nash," said Mia.

Luna fumed. "Well, looks like we'll have to go to the Saylan Desert and bring them back," she said.

Laike gulped. "Well, Althena's powers might have been lost to this world, but it appears as if her temper towards misbehaving Dragonmasters hasn't changed much," he said dryly.

"I won't ask," said Jessica. "Are you coming, or do you wish to wait for my father?"

"I'm going to wait for Hell Mel," said Laike. "You kids will be all right, right?"

"Of course we'll be all right!" said Luna. "Nall? Please had back to Caldor Isle and tell Alex's parents where I'm going?"

Nall, who'd been kept busy by a plate of fish, looked up and nodded. "Can I finish eating first?" he asked.

"Of course you can," said Jessica. "Mia? Lead us to the Green Dragon Wings."

_My head. . ._

Alex groaned and he forced himself to sit up. He looked around to find himself in a cage. He felt it swaying and he had a feeling it was one of those hanging cages he read about in books.

"Glad you're up," said Kyle. "Help me and Nash find a way out of here."

"What?" asked Alex, looking around. He saw that Nash and Kyle were also in the cage, Nash working on one of the bars with a file. He also discovered they were suspended above a pot of boiling water, where a bird similar to the one that they'd been captured by was slicing carrots and putting them into the pot.

"I know, shock, help us!" said Nash.

"Meals aren't supposed to escape," said the bird. 

"They talk?" said Alex.

"Yup, you'd better believe it. Humans are a delicacy to these guys," said Kyle. "We're in trouble, BIG trouble."

"No kidding," said Nash.

"Why don't you try to zap them with your thunder power, Nash?" asked Alex.

"I used up all of my magic a few hours ago," said Nash. "They've also got our weapons."

Alex cringed. "If I had at least a little magic, I could try and use one of the Dragon spells," he said.

"But you lost your magic," said Nash. "I'm not mad, really, you did it to save Lunar. BUT WHO'S GONNA SAVE US!?"

"Nash, calm down," said Alex. "We can't panic. That's the way we're going to die."

"Right, right," said the thunder mage. "But how are we going to get out of here alive?"  
"I don't know, but we're working on that," said Kyle. "Anyone got an idea?"

"HEY! LET THEM GO YOU DUMB BIRDS!" 

"Was that. . . Jessica?" asked Kyle.

"It was, and she's got Mia and Luna with her!" said Nash. "Jess! Mia! Luna! Up here! Help!"

"They want Kyle al la Orange Sauce, Nashed Potatoes, and Alex Pot Pie for dinner tonight!" said Kyle. (Note: "Nashed Potatoes" is an inside joke that Princess Janara accidentally created one day in gym class)

"Get us down!" said Alex. "We'll never, ever, EVER go out behind your backs again!"

"WE'RE SORRY!"

"Apologies and punishment later, FIGHT NOW!" said Jessica, smacking one of the birds with her mace. Mia summoned up a Flameria while Luna began to throw poison darts at their enemies.

One of the birds looked at the captives, licked his beak, and pulled a lever, causing the bottom of the cage to open up. Kyle, Alex, and Nash yelped, but were luckily able to grasp one of the sides of the cage. "Start swinging, then jump when you think we won't land in the pot," said Alex. 

A burst of flaming swords filled the air. When they cleared, many of the monsters lay dead, the rest injured beyond the point of fighting. Alex and the other two jumped down from the cage. The girls rushed over and hugged their respective men, Kyle and Jessica sharing a kiss. 

Then the girls took the next ten minutes to scold the guys. "What were you thinking?!" "Did you think I wouldn't find out?!" "See if I ever let you out of my sight for the next year!"

"Shouldn't we get out of here before the calvary comes?" suggested Nash.

"Point taken," said Mia. "Trouble is, we aren't sure which was IS out. We got here by Green Dragon Wings."

"Well, let's get out weapons so we can help you ladies when we run into trouble," said Kyle. 

"We saw them in a glass cabinet down the hallway," said Mia. "Follow us."

Well? What did you think? This doesn't exactly state the plot quite yet, this just kind of begins to set things up. The whole plot of this series is stated in episode two and the ball begins rolling in part three.

This is the first time I've written really long parts. Normally, my parts are two and half to three pages long. The parts for this fic will range from four to seven or eight pages with a smaller type than I'm used to. 

This is my second Lunar fanfic. The first is entitled _Shattered Heart_, which is a Mia/Nash romance story. Nash is my favorite character, just to let you know, so if he seems to be hogging the spotlight, please e-mail me at CyeSage@netscape.net and I'll be sure to make sure that the other characters get some fame, too. Anyone who writes fanfic will agree that their favorite character tends to be the main focus of most of their stories. Heh, you should see my Ronin Warrior Fanfics. Cye has LOTS of fun in those. . .

-Dixxy


	2. Episode Two

Episode Two: Oops, Sorry

Once the boys were re-equipped, they group began to proceed through the complex caverns where the Terracons made their home. "We'll never find out way out," said Nash. "I can't believe those Terracons we ran into took the Green Dragon Wings."

"I can't believe they ATE the Green Dragon Wings!" said Jessica. "Those were made of silk, that couldn't have tasted any good."

"They're known for their hunger," said Kyle. "And you do have to admit that it WAS kind of funny when they choked on them."

Mia groaned miserably. "But they're worthless now. All the magic shot out of them and transported a vase and another Terracon somewhere else in Lunar," she said.

Unbeknownst to them, Ramus was about to get a special visitor. . .

"Don't worry, we'll find the exit," said Luna. "Laike and Nall both know where we are, if we take a long time getting back they'll send a search party."

"Hey, check this out!" said Nash. "I think I've found out ticket out of this place!"

"What is it, Nash?" asked Luna.

"There's an opening behind this tapestry, there's an opening to a cave!" he said excitedly. "We're finally getting out of here and getting back home!"

"Let me see!" said Kyle. "Hey, what do you know? He's onto something!" The tall, muscular Nanza native lifted back the tapestry to reveal a dark cave leading behind the walls of the Terracons' home.

Jessica's eyes lit up. "Maybe it's the way out!"

"It's worth a try," said Alex. He stepped into the dark cavern and coughed. "Maybe not. There's a ton of dust in here. If it was the exit, then the Terracons wouldn't have let all this dust settle."

"Well, maybe it's a secret exit," said Kyle. "You know, one that leads to an opening they don't know about."

"I'm so sick of this place that I'll try anything!" said Jessica. She stepped into the cave and took a few steps before suddenly falling through the floor. "EEEEEEE!!!"  
"Jessica!" said Kyle, going after her. "WAH!"

"Do we go after them?" asked Nash. 

"You and the girls go ahead, I'll pick up the rear," said Alex. Nash nodded and led the girls down the slide, all screaming on the way down. Alex gulped and followed, finding himself on a huge water slide. "AHHHHHH!!!!"

Once Alex reached the end of the ride, he found himself in a shoulder deep pool of water. He saw his friends, all soaked and looking liked drowned rats, at the edge of the pool. The former Dragonmaster swam over, eventually dragging himself out of the water. "I think things just got worse," said Nash.

"No kidding, Sherlock," said Kyle. "Let's try to find a way out. Then we've got to hope someone comes for us. At least we know Laike knows we're in the Saylan Desert."

"But we can't give up. Let's at least try to find some food or something we can make into food," said Alex. 

"Right," said Jessica. "Food. . . I'm so hungry!"

"Let's start looking," said Kyle. "Come on. We have to keep moving."

After finding some mushrooms that Kyle deemed weren't poisonous, the group ate, but still weren't much closer to an exit than they had been. It wasn't much later that most of the group lay asleep, only Alex remaining awake. Luna lay next to him, shivering from her still wet clothes. It was only because of Jessica's healing magic that they weren't all going to catch cold.

_This is scary, _he thought. _At least when we were fighting Ghaleon we weren't going hungry, we weren't cold, and we had a prayer._

Suddenly, Alex heard a shimmering sound in the distance. He sat up and saw something glowing in the distance. "Wow," he said. 

"Mmm, Alex, go back to sleep," mumbled Luna.

"I see something. Something shiny," he said. 

Luna was suddenly awake. "Is it the exit!?"

Slowly, the other party members began to awake. "Exit?" mumbled Jessica, rubbing one of her eyes. 

"There's something glowing over there," said Alex. "It, it might be the exit!"

"If it's the exit, let's go!" said Nash.

"Hold it, Sparky, let's go together," said Kyle. "It could be a trap."

"Right, right," said Nash. The group slowly proceeded to the light, each of their hearts pounding in their chests. The approach was slow and steady, the girls clinging to their respective men. 

"Who's going out first?" whispered Jessica.

"I don't know," said Nash.

"Why are we whispering?" asked Kyle.

"I don't know!" hissed Alex. "I'll go."

"Be careful," said Luna. Alex nodded and poked his head around the corner of the alcove and gasped. Sitting on a rock pedestal sat a huge, glowing crystal. It shimmered in every color of the rainbow, easily hypnotizing the young Dragonmaster that gazed apon it. Several spikes of crystal shot out in multiple directions, resembling one of Mia's Ice Lance spells. 

"Wow," said Alex. "That thing is incredible!"

"Alex?" asked Nash. He joined Alex and whistled. "That's an expensive rock, right there. But what is it doing in the middle of this cave? Why's it glowing? Something isn't right here."

Kyle's eyes widened as he looked at the crystal Alex had discovered. "Can you imagine how much money that could be sold for?" he said. "That's gotta be worth WAY more than a Dragon Diamond! Not only will we be heroes, but we'll be filthy stinking RICH heroes if we sell off that thing!"

"Let me see!" said Jessica. "That would make a pretty necklace! Maybe we could get a piece of it for my wedding ring. And there'd be plenty left over to make wedding rings for Luna and Mia for whenever Alex and Nash ever get the nerve to pop the question."

"It's so pretty!" said Luna. "But what is it?"

"I don't know, something feels wrong about it," said Nash.

Mia, easily the smallest in the group (Vanetians- especially Ausas- tended to be a little on the short side), kept jumping up over shoulders trying to see over her taller friends. "Hey! I want to see what it is, too!"

"It's absolutely fascinating," said Alex. He began to slowly walk towards the crystal, his hand outstretched. His friends' voices began to slowly become less and less audible, the only thing in his mind the crystal that lay before him. 

"Alex, what are you doing?!" said Mia. "Get away from that!"

"It's radiating with powerful magic! I think it's holding more power in one of its spikes than Ghaleon had in his whole body!" said Nash. 

Alex didn't respond. He kept slowly walking over to the crystal. Kyle had now joined him, his eyes locked on the jewel as much as Alex's had. 

"We've got to get them! Luna, help me grab Alex. Mia, Jessica, please try to get a hold on Kyle," said Nash. The rest of the group tried to grab the two swordsmen, and found pulling them back futile. Alex and Kyle would not stop proceeding to the crystal.

"STOP!" cried Jessica.

"You guys, it might be BAD!" said Nash. "Snap out of it!"

"Jessica! Try a litany!" said Mia.

Jessica chanted quickly. Nothing happened. "Nothing!" she said. "Nash, you and Mia have to destroy that thing!"

"What? Are you crazy?" said Mia.

"Just do it!" said Luna.

"We don't have much of a choice," said Nash. He and Mia began to chant.

"Summon elemental power!!"

"Check this out!"

KA-ZAP!

KA-ZING!

KA-BOOM!

****

"Huh?" said Alex, snapping out of his trance. "What the- that thing's gonna explode!"

"This is bad," said Nash. "Blowing it up was probably worse than letting Alex and Kyle keep on walking."

"Holy crap, that thing's shaking pretty badly," said Kyle. 

"It's gonna BLOW!" said Jessica. "Run!"

**_KKAA-BBOOOOMM!!_**

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!"

Sometime later, the group slowly began to regain consciousness. "Ow, my head," complained Kyle.

"I think I'm hurt in places I didn't even know I had," Nash grumbled.

"I think I'm gonna be sick," said Jessica.

"Double for me," said Mia.

"Has anyone besides me noticed we're floating in a vast nothingness?" said Luna.

With that, the group then decided that they were, indeed, floating in a vast nothingness. They all reacted uniquely. Nash began to wildly flap his arms and legs. Kyle gawked and looked around. Mia giggled, stating she thought this was fun. Jessica attempted to swim through the air and became frustrated that she couldn't. Luna and Alex exchanged looks and waited for something to happen.

"Nothing's happened yet," said Kyle. "But something's bound to happened."

"Of course something's going to happen!" said Nash. "We shouldn't have tried to mess with that crystal! Or found another way to snap you and Alex out of it!"

"I'm scared," said Mia. "What are we going to do?"

"I don't know, we just have to float tight and be patient," said Alex. "Someone wanted us here, so we have to wait for them to do something."

_Good observation._

"A ha! Something's finally happening!" said Kyle. "A disembodied voice is talking to us. That's better than we've had. Where are we?"

"Who are you and what was that crystal?" asked Jessica.

_This is not the place to talk. Here, let me take you to my private living quarters._

In a soft glow of light, the group found themselves in a warm parlor, each couple sitting on a love seat centered around a warm hearth. To their happiness, they were also dry and fully healed. "Hey, things are getting better already," said Nash, crossing his legs and leaning back in his seat after putting his hands behind his head. 

"Are you so sure about that?" asked Alex. "We still don't know what the disembodied voice wants with us."

"I am no longer a disembodied voice."

The group gasped as an angry looking woman appeared before them. She wore a blue shirt, a tan vest, and thick brown pants. A blonde ponytail hung over her back, a green headband fluffing her bangs upward. "Who are you?" asked Luna.

"I'm Willamina. I'm the Keeper of the Realms," she said. 

"Hi, nice meeting you, I'm Mia Ausa," said Mia. "This is Nash, and our friends are Alex, Luna, Kyle, and Jessica. Could you please tell us why we've been brought here?"

"Easy. You broke the Crystal of the Realms," said Willamina.

"THAT'S what that thing was. Uh, what does it do?" asked Nash.

"It's my main source of power. It also helps stop people entering the In Between. That's where we are. You see, if the wrong person gets into the In Between, they could summon all of the evil villains from the different realms and proceed to take over the realms one at a time. I'm supposed to make sure that doesn't happen. That crystal was my best defense!" said Willamina. "That's why I'm going to have to kill you all."

"What!?" said Kyle. "Hey, we were lost and that thing hypnotized me and my friend and our friends got scared so they-"

"I know all that!" said Willamina. "You only needed to snap your fingers right in their ears."

"THAT was how we snapped them out of it?" said Nash.

"Heh, that's kind of a funny pun if you think about it," said Jessica.

"We're going to get killed and you think that this is FUNNY?" said Mia. Jessica shrugged. "Look, please, we're really sorry and if there's any way we can help you-"

Willamina held up her hand, silencing the group. She looked thoughtful. "Hmm, perhaps you can help me. You seem to be overall good kids," she said. "Hey, aren't you the kids who just saved your world from massive destruction by that Magic Emperor guy?"

"Yes," said Alex. "People of our world have come to know us as the Five Heroes."

"Hmm," said the Keeper of the Realms. She levitated off the ground and took an Indian style seating position. "Sounds, interesting. All right. I have an idea."

"You'll let us help you?" asked Kyle.

"Yes," said Willamina. "Only if the crystal did what I think it did." She snapped her fingers and suddenly the group was in a laboratory filled with different colorful liquids and containers. 

"She's certainly good with magic," said Nash. "Where is she?"

"Over there," said Kyle. Willamina was looking into a crystal ball, waving her hands around it. The group walked over and looked in, seeing nothing. "See anything?"

"Ah. Just as I suspected. The crystal was shattered into many small pieces," she said. "They've since morphed into glowing balls about as large as a fist."

"And?" asked Alex.

"If all of the pieces were to be brought back together again, the crystal should re-form," said Willamina. "Now, here's the deal. You kids go and get the first piece. Get the first piece and I'll let you live, then you can get the other pieces."

"That's it? Find a glowing piece of crystal?" said Kyle.

"I have to see if you're effective, though, even in drastic situations," she said. "I'll send you to one of the realms in an area where the crystal is located. But, I'll have you all sent to different corners of the city. You have to not only locate the crystal, but also locate each other. You'll have a week- seven days- to do it."

"If we fail?" asked Jessica.

Willamina had to only draw her finger across her neck to get the point across.

"So if we take the test and pass, we live. If we fail, we die. But if we don't take the test at all, we die," said Alex.

"Right," said Willamina.

"We'd better take the test. It's either we might die, or we'll DEFINITELY die," said Kyle. "Any other catches?"

"Four of you can use magic, I see," said Willamina. "This is more of a warning, but, in many of the realms, this type of magic does not exist, so I'd advise against using it."

"Is this one of those realms?" asked Nash.

"I believe so," said Willamina. "Now, Nash, is it? Follow me. You're going first. I need to- oh! I almost forgot. Different realms have different kinds of clothing and styles. I'm afraid you're going to need to dress like the locals for the majority of your adventures. And sometimes I'll have to alter your physical appearance."

"Why?" asked Luna. 

"Well, for instance, I'm going to need to make your hair brown or black, Luna, since they don't have many people with blue hair where you're going. In fact it's non-existent. As far as Jessica, they don't have beast people, so I'll only have to change your ears and those little lines on your cheek," said Willamina. "But there will be some realms where you can be yourselves."

"Oh good," said Nash. "Meet you guys there."

"Don't make yourself scarce, Nash, and behave yourself!" said Mia as Willamina led him out of the room.

Finally, only Alex remained. Willamina had just left with Jessica. Each of the trips had only taken a matter of minutes, and finally, the Keeper of the Realms returned. "Alex, it's your turn." Alex stood up and followed Willamina into the door his friends had all disappeared into.

The room consisted of a mirror, several chairs, and a desk. Willamina looked over Alex. "Hmm, okay, I think I've got it," she said. She waved her hand over Alex and he suddenly felt different. He looked into the mirror in the room and blinked. He was wearing a strange looking green shirt with sleeves onto barely reaching his elbows and a pair of somewhat tight blue pants. His walking boots had been replaced by strange boots laced with white strings.

Willamina laughed. "The shirt is called a T-shirt. The pants are called jeans. The shoes are called sneakers. The thing on your wrist is a watch, a time-telling device. In your back pocket is a wallet, which contains money that you'll need to use to purchase food. Each of you has been given one hundred dollars, spend it wisely."

"Dollar?" asked Alex.

"The base money unit in the world you're going to," said the Keeper of the Realms. "The money is fairly simple to figure out. I wish you good-luck. Step through the mirror and you will be brought to the realm you are to visit."

Alex nodded. "All right. I'll see you when we get back, Willamina."

Willamina laughed. "You all seem so confident. Bye!" she said. With that, Alex boldly faced the mirror and stepped through into the unknown.

So concludes episode two. Ah, so now we have a plot line. The group is going to be skipping realms to fix something that they broke. But the question is, will they succeed? And exactly where has Willamina sent them? All this and more in episode three!

As for the realm skipping itself, well, huh, now you know why it's called the Sliders Series. Although it'll probably get a name change eventually. A good part of this whole series will be cross-overs, where the Lunar cast visits worlds where such characters as Sailor Moon, Link and Zelda, and possibly even Sabrina the Teenage Witch reside. Others will be just placing the characters in a modern world setting with some strange going-ons, such as secret government operations or evil super geniuses with no nemesis. There should also be some aspects of the past, such as a Western adventure and 20's gangster setup.

Many of you might say "What about Lunar 2?" and "Bring on Harry Potter, baby, yeah!" Well, first off, I absolutely despise Harry Potter. I hate how society is trying to shove him up my butt. If there is a Harry Potter crossing, expect him and that stupid school of his to go down in flames. As for Lunar 2, well, I'm still undecided. My old excuse was that "What if the two Nalls run into each other and Lunar 2 Nall spoils what happens to them?" Well, Nall from Lunar SSSC didn't go with them. He went back to Burg to tell Alex's parents where they were. I must admit that Nash and Mia seeing Vane in Lunar 2 would be interesting, maybe ever heartbreaking, and I could only imagine what Jessica would say when they find out the Meribia mansion has changed. 

Heh, long Author's Notes. Sorry. . .

-Dixxy


	3. Edpisode Three

Episode Three: Welcome to the Modern World

"This is a strange world," Nash mused. The world Willamina had sent the Five Heroes and former goddess into a world filled with tall buildings, strange wagons that moved without horses, and women wearing incredibly revealing clothing. "If we aren't going to get killed, maybe I should trying to look for the others."

Nash, who'd been sitting on a stoop, stood up and brushed off the pants he'd been given. He frowned. These jeans were a little tighter than the loose baggy pants he wore with his apprentice tunics and the T-shirt was just. . . odd looking, but lots of people seemed to be wearing them. He started walking along a slightly elevated cement platform that some people were calling the "sidewalk", which seemed like a good idea. The "cars" were going very fast and it looked like getting hit by one of the would be painful.

"Nash! Over here!" 

Nash looked up and smiled to see Jessica running towards him. She looked a little different, her ears being much shorter than they had been, and the two marks under her cheeks missing. She had been dressed in a sleeveless purple shirt, a pair of jeans shorts, and a sweater tied around her waist. "Jessica! Good to see somebody I know!"

"You look weird without your usual ensemble, but luckily I saw your hair in the crowd," said Jessica.

"Cute," said the mage. "Look, if it was THIS easy to find just one of us, then it all we have to do is find the others!"

"Yeah, that WAS pathetically easy. You'd think Willamina would throw in a challenge," said Jessica.'

Nash shook his head. "Just being in another world should be challenging enough. Plus, she's counting on us to get the crystals back."

"Then why threaten to kill us?" asked Jessica. Nash shrugged in response. "No matter, all we have to do is find the others, find the crystal, and get our butts out of here." The excited priestess grabbed Nash by the wrist and dragged him through the crowd.

"This certainly is an interesting world, isn't it, Mia?" asked Luna. Mia and Luna had been lucky enough to find each other early on, and the only task that remained was hunting down the others and the crystal piece. 

"Yes, it is," said Mia. "You look, weird, with red hair."

Luna sighed. "Willamina got carried away with trying different colors on me and settled on this," said Luna, fingering the red strands of hair between her fingers. "Good thing I spotted YOU, or else we would've walked right past each other." 

"I know," said Mia. The dark haired mage sighed. She'd been given a pair of tight fitting bell bottom jeans and a pink T-shirt. Mia didn't like the shirt; it was tight and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't pull it down far enough to cover her exposed midriff. Luna was wearing a jean skirt and a blue T-shirt that did a better job at covering her. 

"So, Mia, do you have any ideas on what we do next?" asked Luna. 

"Well, I'd suggest leaving this park bench, for starters," said Mia. "Let's walk around. We'll hopefully run into one of them."

"Hopefully," said Luna. She stood up, brushed off her skirt, and started walking down the sidewalk, Mia in tow. "This is an interesting place, huh?"

"Yes, it is," said Mia. "But it's so much more crowded than-"

"Yeah, that too, but think of how helpful everyone back home is! I bet everyone here is just as friendly!" said Luna. She then looked across the street to see a rather large, rather nasty fight involving brass knuckles, knives, and big sticks. 

Mia's eyes widened. "Uh, maybe not."

"Yes, I'll agree with that," said Luna. "Let's. . . keep walking."

"Should we run before someone brings it on this side of the street?" asked Mia, watching as one of the fighters was tossed into a wall. He didn't get back up after the impact.

"You know, Mia, that sounds like a really good idea," said Luna.

"So we're going to run?" said Mia. 

"I think so," said Luna. "I would help them, but, we've got an important job to do. That, and I enjoy having both of my eyes."

"I don't like this place," said Kyle. "It's crawling with creeps even shadier than I am."

Alex had to agree with Kyle. They'd wandered into a tough part of town while looking for the others. "It seems as if there's a lot of gangs and violence in this part of town."

"The docks. Even Meribia has a few shady characters at the docks," said Kyle. "See the water and all the boat houses?"

"I see them," said Alex. "Think we'll find them here?"

"I hope not, but we MIGHT find the crystal particle in this part of town. Any thief would jump at the chance to get something like that," said Kyle. "It's shiny, it's hard, so, in essence, it's valuable."

Alex just nodded. "So, where do we start looking?"

Kyle shrugged, shoving his hands into the back pockets of his jeans. "I'd guess that we should look for Nash or Mia, since they're the ones who can sense that kind of stuff."

"Unless we find it on accident," said Alex.

Kyle laughed. "Yeah right- WHOA!" said Kyle, falling backwards.

"Kyle, you tripped over the crystal!" said Alex, picking up the small, milky white crystal ball. "Good job!"

"Ow, my butt hurts," said Kyle. 

Alex reached down to help Kyle up. "Are you okay?"

"I don't think I'll be able to sit down for a while, but aside from that, just fine," said Kyle. "Ow. . ."

"Come on, we've got six days to find the others," said Alex. "And find out how Willamina expects us to get back to here."

"Rats, forgot about that," said Kyle. "She'll probably just zap us back once she sees we have her crystal."

Alex shrugged. "Look, it's getting late, we should probably hit the hay."

"Sure," said Kyle. "I can lay on my stomach so my butt doesn't hurt."

"Thanks for sharing," said Alex. "Maybe we'll find an empty boathouse or something."

"That sounds good," said Kyle. "Let's go."

"It was really nice of those guys to let us spend the night at their warehouse," said Jessica. A group of men had found her and Nash late at night, still lingering on streets, and offered them a room. The room had been an office of some sort, Jessica taking the old couch while Nash slept on the floor. 

"Yeah, but it seems kind of. . . suspicious," said Nash. "Why would someone just give you a free room without even knowing you?"

"Well, lot's of people gave us rooms on our quest," said Jessica. 

"Well, that was different," said Nash. "Everyone already knew who a lot of us were because of who your parents are or because of Kyle's odd and unusual friends."

The priestess smiled, then frowned. "That reminds me. My father isn't going to be happy if half of Reza shows up for the wedding," said Jessica. 

"Then have it in Nanza," said Nash. "Kyle's men can easily take care of the thieves. And it's a beautiful mountain view."

Jessica smiled. "That does sound nice."

"But back to the subject," said Nash, sitting up. "Why did those guys, just out of no where, let us stay with them? No one here knows who Hell Mel is. No one knows about any Goddess Althena. No one knows about the Magic Guild. So, why were they being nice to us?"

Jessica sat up as well. "Yeah, it was kind of. . . spontaneous. "Maybe we should check this place out and see about what the heck is going on."

Nash nodded, standing up. "Agreed. But we have to be quiet if they're just nice or if they're up to something," he said. Jessica stood up and slowly crept over to the door with her friend. The mage placed his hand on the doorknob and slowly turned it. They both nearly jumped at the click, but kept calm. Slowly, Nash opened the door and they quietly crept out and ducked behind a stack of boxes, as their hosts were still up.

The group of men that had been so generous to them were now standing around in red, hooded robes, chanting around a strange black fire. They were chanting some sort of a dark spell, causing the fire to flicker every so often.

"We've got to get out of here," said Nash. "I feel a ton of evil magic here. This is almost as bad as Ghaleon's experiments."

"That bad?' said Jessica. 

"Maybe worse."

"Hey! The sacrifices woke up!" said one of the men. 

"Sacrifices?!?" Jessica and Nash said at once. "Let's get out of here! AHH!"

"Not so fast!" said one of the men, holding up his hand. Suddenly, Nash and Jessica were surrounded by a wall of flames. Jessica yelped and instinctively clung to the closest object, namely Nash. "You two have been selected to be sacrificed to the Black Fire. Accept your fate."

"No way!" said Nash. After getting Jessica' iron grip off, Nash raised his hand. "Check this out!" A few sparks escaped his fingers, but aside from that, nothing. "Uh oh, I forgot. I'm out of MP!"

"Whatever, you both belong to the Black Fire, now!" said a figure in a white and red robe they hadn't seen before. This figure was, different. Once the hood was removed, they saw a woman with dark hair and red streaks throughout. 

"Who are you?" asked Jessica. "What do you want with us?!"

The woman grinned. "All though it won't matter once our preparations have been made, we are the Disciples of the Black Fire. The Black Fire makes us immortal. Immortals to forever serve its needs. And the Black Fire grows hungrier by the day. That's why we needed you two. It craves young blood."

Nash growled. "You're not getting it!"

"Well, not tonight. There are still several preparation that need to be made before we actually sacrifice you," she said. "Dispel the fire and have the girl brought to me and my female disciples. Men, take care of the young man. You know the proper preparations that need to be taken place."

Once the fire was dispelled, Jessica and Nash were overpowered by the Disciples and dragged away to different parts of the warehouse.

Luna and Mia had ended up rather lucky as far as finding a place to sleep. They'd found a homeless shelter and spent the night there. The bunk beds weren't exactly comfortable, but it was better than a garbage can or worse. "Sleep good?" asked Mia, peeking over the top bunk at Luna, who was still getting up. 

"All right," she said, holding back a yawn. "Let's get up, eat, and start looking for Alex and the others."

"You think they've gotten in trouble?" asked Mia.

"I don't think so. At least Alex hasn't," said Luna. "I don't know about Nash, Jess, and Kyle, though."

Mia smiled. "You have a keen lock on Alex, don't you?"

Luna nodded. "Of course! He's the last Dragonmaster and, in essence, I'm the Goddess Althena."

"So, how exactly do you plan on finding them?" asked Mia.

"I'm hoping Alex will smarten up and play his ocarina. I can hear it from anywhere!" said Luna. "Then tracking him- Good, he finally did smarten up. I can hear him."

"Well then let's go and follow!" said Mia, pulling her sneakers on and quickly lacing them up. Luna was walking out the door already, so the smaller mage had to rush to catch up to her friend. "Luna! Wait up!"

"This way, he's close by," said Luna. "Very close."

Mia sighed heavily. No use in trying to get her slow down. She'd just have to run to catch up. Trouble was, she wasn't very fast on her feet and despite her light weight, she couldn't go very far at a time. "Luna. . ."

"There! Alex! Kyle!" cried Luna, darting across the street. Several cars had to jam on their breaks to keep from hitting the excited girl. Several gave her "advice". Mia groaned and saw than, indeed, Alex and Kyle were across the street, Alex playing his ocarina. Luna rushed into him, catching the former Dragonmaster by surprise. Once traffic slowed down, Mia carefully crossed to join her friends. 

"Hey, glad to see you kids all right," said Kyle. "Now we just gotta find Sparky and my fiancé."

"Sparky? Oh, I get it," said Luna. "You're awful to him, sometimes."

"Luna, he blew up an airship and betrayed us to Ghaleon," said Kyle. "Of course I'm going to be rotten to him for a while! But I'm starting to like the guy!"

"What's with the red hair, Luna?" asked Alex, fingering Luna's flowing red locks.

"Oh. Willamina decided to experiment with different colors. Like it?" asked Luna.

Alex blushed. "Uh. . . yeah. . ."

"You don't know like?"

"That's not what I said!" said Alex. 

"Alex, Luna, please stop arguing. We need to find Nash, Jessica, and- the crystal!" said Mia, her eyes widening as she saw Kyle reveal the crystal from her pocket. "You've found it already?"

"Yes, I tripped on it and Alex pointed it out," said Kyle.

Luna laughed. "Then that makes our job that much easier!" 

"Good, so now all we have to do is consider where we'd find Nash and Jessica," said Mia. "If I were Nash, where would I be?"

"Your underwear drawer," said Kyle.

SMACK!

"Ow!" said Kyle. 

"So, aside from my underwear drawer, where would Nash be?"  
"In trouble?" asked Kyle. "Maybe at a place where they sell chicken costumes? Or what about a hair salon?"

Mia frowned. "Better guesses, but no. The library!"

"The library?" asked Alex. "Why would someone want to- oh yeah, Nash is a little bit of a bookworm, isn't he?"

"Exactly," said Mia. "That, and he might want to learn about this place before he begins his personal search for the rest of us. I don't get it, but Nash loves research. He's really going to make a great teacher at the Guild someday, but back to the point. Now, where would we find Jessica?"

"Heh, MY underwear drawer," said Kyle.

SMACK!

"Now at least his face is symmetrical. Seriously, where would se be?" said Mia. 

"Maybe they ran into each other," said Luna. "We just have to hope they're both alive when we find them."

Alex sighed. Jessica and Nash usually weren't a good combination. In fact, it was usually a screaming contest. Occasionally it got psychically with Jessica smacking Nash with one of her maces so he was either knocked unconscious or confused so he started sparking thunder bombs everywhere in the party. There was one time he hit Kyle-

Not important. We'll tell you later. 

"Well, we've still got five and a half days left to find them," said Mia. "But that doesn't mean we should take our time."

"Mia's right, we have to hurry if we're going to find them before the week is up," said Alex. "So, do we try the library or what?"

"I think we should go and find a map, first. That way we won't get lost," said Kyle.

"You know, he's actually thought of some intelligent ideas," said Luna. "I thought Jessica said he was a dumb bastard."

"That's because I can be a dumb bastard. And Mia? Please stick to hitting Nash!" said Kyle, rubbing his sore cheeks.

"You deserved it," said Mia. Kyle's eyes widened at Mia's retort, and he frowned. "Oh, don't be a cry-baby, Kyle. After all, you're getting married. If you say you're a man, than act like one, and not like an immature teenage boy!"

Luna clapped in approval, and Mia laughed while Kyle and Alex groaned. "Can we please just go to the stupid library and see if Nash went there or not?" said Alex. 

"Alex is right, we're wasting valuable time, and we don't know how long it's going to take to hunt them both down," said Kyle. "So, let's get going already."

With that final comment, the four began the search for their final two members.

Two days passed without any sign that Nash and Jessica had been seen or heard off. Alex and Luna could see worry deeply furrowed within Mia and Kyle alike, the latter seeming the most timid. Kyle had grown oddly quiet during their fruitless search. He didn't joke, complain about the drinking age being twenty-one, or call Nash "Sparky". 

Mia was worried, too, but not so much as Kyle. The group knew that ever since the Magic Masher incident, Nash's way too obvious feelings for Mia were being returned. Mia was beside her self, which definitely caused some concern within the group. But this seemed normal for Mia. Being quiet when she was worried. Kyle normally made jokes to hide his nervousness, but not this time. 

But then again, where was Jessica to hear his jokes?

All right, so Nash and Jessica are captured by a group of evil cult people and the others have found the crystal. Think things look bad? They'll get worse. MUCH worse, trust me on that!


	4. Episode Four

Episode Four: The Ritual Begins

"Let me go you ignorant hicks! Unhand me!" cried Nash, thrashing out at his captors. The male Disciples had clothed him in a weird red outfit of a baggy shirt and relatively tight pants. They had said they were special clothes for the sacrifice that he was going to be forcefully thrown into. Currently, three of the barbaric Disciples were rough handling him after three days- three days!- of being groped, beaten, and placed under strange enchantments. Nash wasn't sure what half of them did, but he knew he was beginning to feel really funny.

"All right, in ya go!" said one of the men as the other three tossed him into an old storage room. Nash jumped up, shook his head, raced for the door, trying to unlock it. 

"Nash, it's no use, it's locked tight."

Nash turned his head to see Jessica dressed in a blood red, sleeveless and strapless dress. The skirt of the dress scarcely went past her hips, her legs adorned with ornately decorated red boots. "I don't mean to be rude, but you look like Little Red Riding Hood, only without the hood."

"Yeah? And you look like Robin Hood without his Merry Men," said Jessica. "Looks like they gave you a hard time too."

"What did they do to you?" asked Nash, folding his arms. 

"The women just smacked me around a little bit and tried to give me a few make-overs," she said. That was when Nash noticed the red lipstick on her normally pink lips. "And did some pre-ritual spells. What did they do to you?"

"Well, I think some of those guys walk on the other side of the road since I got grabbed a few times, and the rest of them either cast spells on me or beat the crap out of me," said Nash.

Jessica gasped. "They did WHAT?!"

Nash frowned. "It wasn't fun."

"Well, are you going to be all right?" asked Jessica. 

"I'll be all right once we get out of this stupid realm, find our friends, and get the stupid crystal! I'll be all right when we're back in Lunar and I'm not spit at because of what I did by betraying you guys! I'll be all right when everything's the way it used to be! Vane floating in air, me studying magic and trying to impress Mia!" said Nash. By this point he was near screaming. 

The priestess put her hand on Nash's shoulder. "I didn't realize you felt that way."

"I've done some stupid things, I just, I just wish I could change all that," he said. He sat down on a crate and put his head in his hands. "It's been a difficult time for me after we defeated Ghaleon. The Vanetians just don't seem to see that I was trying to keep my friends from getting killed. To keep Mia from getting killed. Ever, ever since I first met her, when I was seven and just came out of the Cave of Trials, I, I couldn't help but like her. That stupid ballet teacher was so mean to her! He hit her, and I just-"

Jessica gasped, cutting Nash off. "That little pip-squeak was YOU?" she said. "I remember what happened that day. . ."

_"No, no, no!" shouted Francis, Mia's ballet instructor. "You do it ALL wrong!"_

Mia looked at the ground. "I'm sorry, I try really hard, really, I do!" she said. "I'll get it right this time, I promise!"

Jessica sat across the room, watching her best friend's ballet lesson. The small six year old girl watched patiently, hugging a stuffed bunny her father had given her recently. Her father, Master Mel of Meribia, and Mia's mom, Lemia Ausa, were good friends. People called them "One of the Four Heroes". Jessica knew her father had done something important, she just wasn't old enough to really understand what it was. 

"You are STUPID!" said Francis. "You are a worthless, worthless little girl!"

Mia was starting to get teary eyed. "I, I said I'm sorry."

Jessica stood up and backed into a corner. This was getting scary. Mia told Jessica that Francis yelled a lot, but she didn't think it was this scary. Especially from a twig like Francis. Suddenly, he was really scary. Even scarier than that Ghaleon guy.

That was when it happened. Francis raised his hand and slapped Mia clear across the face, sending the small girl skidding across the ball room floor. Mia started to cry and Francis began to walk over to probably hit her again.

That was when the flash of green came out of nowhere. 

The next thing Jessica saw was a skinny boy with dirt smudged green clothes sitting on top of the now floored ballet instructor. In fact, his hair, face, and everything else visible was dirty, like he'd just been in a cave. "Hey!" he said. "You can't hit a lady!"

"Just who the hell do you think you are?! You don't belong here!" said Francis, tossing the boy off his chest and picking him up by the front of his shirt. "What I do with the girl is my business, and certainly not the business of a little ruffian like you."

"I'm not a ruffian! I'm a student of the Magic Guild!" he said. 

Francis snorted. "A dirty little shrimp like you? Yeah, sure- OW!" cried the offensive instructor, dropping the boy and clutching his hand. "What the hell did you do?"

Jessica saw little spark of yellow thunder escaping from the boy's fingers. "I beat up the monster in the cave with my magic, I can beat you up, too!" He raised his hand and tried to shock Francis, but to no avail. Jessica realized that he must have had a very low MP count at his age and size. "Uh oh," he said.

"You're going to get one mother of a beating, kid," said Francis. He darted forward and pushed the boy to the ground, promptly beginning to smack the small boy senseless. Jessica gasped, Mia looking over at the boy who was now receiving the beating she was going to get. 

"What is the meaning of this?!"

Jessica looked up to see her father, Ghaleon, and Lemia standing in the doorway. Lemia took one look at her sobbing daughter and rushed over. Mel ran over to Jessica's hiding spot, leaving Ghaleon to kneel down beside the tossed aside boy. The boy looked up at Ghaleon curiously, blinking in wonderment. 

Lemia, who had picked Mia up and was holding the still sniffling child, turned to Francis. "You're fired. If you dare go near my daughter again, expect to see what the world looks like from a chopping block." Francis wasted no time in running out of the ball room, never to return to Vane again. . .

"That was me, all right," said Nash. "That's how I met Ghaleon, too. He took me to his room and got me cleaned up after that. I guess he grew to like me and offered to take me up as his apprentice for my bravery."

Jessica smiled. "I never knew you used to be so . . . selfless."

Nash sighed. "I know. Ghaleon helped turn me into a self-centered jackass, didn't he?"

"Yeah, he did," said Jessica. She stood up and looked at the window. "Do you think Kyle and the others are looking for us?"

"Hopefully they've all found each other by now and are doing just that," said Nash. "But we don't know how much time we have left before. . . you know."

"I know that!" snapped Jessica. "We've got to keep a positive attitude about this and maybe we'll come out alive."

"But we still don't know anything about the weird spells that they were placing on us," said Nash. "For all we know it could be nothing or it could be magical poison."

Jessica's eyes widened. "Do you really think so?"

"No, I'm just sending out ideas," said Nash. He slammed his fist into an open palm. "We've got to escape. Any ideas?"

"The window is out of reach. Even if it was in reach, it's been barred up. The door is locked. You're out of magic and if I'm lucky I'll have enough magic for two Heal Litanies-" started Jessica.

"We can buy ourselves some time if you try and see if your Cleansing Litany will reverse what incantations they put on us!" said Nash.

Jessica smiled. "Good thinking, Nash! Let's give it a try." Jessica pressed her palms together and began to slowly chant. Her eyes flashed open as she cast the spell. "In the name of the Goddess!" The small priestess' body began to glow softly. Her friend sat on one of the crates, watching to see if it would work. Once the glowing stopped, Jessica fell to her knees and frowned. Nash didn't need to ask if it had worked or not.

"Any other ideas?" asked Nash.

"No," said Jessica, just as they heard the door begin to open. "Shoot, they're coming!"

"What now?!" said Nash. Panic was beginning to arise as his heart began to practically beat out of his chest. "We've got to do something to fend them off!"

Jessica was furrowing around in one of the corners. "Ah ha! I've found two sticks. Grab one and we'll clobber them!" she said. Nash darted over and picked up one of the sticks Jessica had found. It was a solid, sturdy piece of wood that looked a little like a table leg. On the side of it, Nash read the words "Home Run Hitter".

"What's a Home Run Hitter?" he asked. 

"Does it matter? These will make great weapons!" said Jessica, swinging the stick around. "Got a nice feel to it."

"All right you two, come out of hiding," said whichever disciple had come to bother them.

"You go around that side, I'll go around this side," Nash whispered. Slowly, the two crept around to either side of the guard who had come to collect them. 

"C'mon, come out, come out, wherever you are! Ollie, ollie, oxen free! Hey! Get your butts out here RIGHT NOW!" said the now VERY irritated Disciple.

"Special delivery!" said Nash, who was now right on top of the hooded Disciple. He took a swing and connected with the Disciples' head. "Yes!" he said as the Disciple spun around, mumbled something about the pretty birdies, and fell to the floor. Jessica ran over and smiled before darting out the door. Nash followed and skidded to a stop next to Jessica.

"We're surrounded!" cried Jessica.

The hooded woman they'd met a few days earlier in the red and white stepped forward. "I'm pressed," she said. "You two almost managed to escape from me. Won't it be oddly romantic as the two of you die together is a massive-"

"Wait a second," said Nash, holding up his hand. "You think me, and her, are a couple?"

The woman blinked. "Well, aren't you?"

"NO!" the captives said in unison. 

"Well, that doesn't matter. I need a young female and a young male for the ceremony, you two fit the bill just fine, lovers or not," she said. The woman grinned knowingly, making a shiver rush up both of their spines. "Bring them to the last enchantment. We're almost ready to begin."

Sometime later, the two captives had been brought outside of the warehouse to face the ocean crashing up against the docks. It was dark out, probably close to midnight. Nash and Mia had been tied back to back to make escape difficult. They were also on the ground, making standing up hard. Both had a good view of a tall podium where several magical talismans sat, ready for some sort of a huge ritual. The hooded woman stepped out for all of the Disciples of the Black Fire to see. Facing the water, the woman began to chant.

"There's a ton of Dark Magic in the air," said Nash. "Things just got REALLY, REALLY bad."

"How bad?" asked Jessica. Then was when she felt a tight squeeze on one of her hands. "Nash?"

"Just because Kyle isn't here to give you the comfort," he said sheepishly. "He'd do the same if it were him and Mia in this position."

The young priestess sighed. So, how close were she and Nash to their imminent doom? The fourth day was drawing to a close and here they were, in REALLY deep trouble. Jessica looked out onto the ocean and saw a sight very much like the sight she saw when Alex and Luna summoned the Blue Dragon Shrine. Only this time the shrine that emerged was even more immense, and unlike the Dragon Shrine, looked evil. "Wow," she said. "What is it?"  
Nash gulped. "I don't know, but I know I don't like it."

The woman threw her head back and began to laugh. "The time has come for us to live another hundred years!" The woman turned back to the Disciples. "Two of you bring the sacrifices to the boat. I want them to travel with me."

Jessica and Nash yelped in surprise as they were lifted up by two of the Disciples. "Well, it's been nice knowing you, Jess," said Nash. "You got a little whiny sometimes, but you were a good friend-"

"JESSICA!"

Jessica looked up and over and gasped to see Kyle running towards the group of Disciples. "Kyle! Help!" she cried. Before Kyle could reach her, he was blocked by two Disciples welding scythes. Kyle tried to break through them when the leader stepped forward.

"Let her go you-" Kyle started.

"The young girl and her friend with the hair belong to me, now," she said. "Know that I, Elvina, am the leader of the Disciples of the Black Fire and that this young girl, Jessica, as you called her, is going to be a sacrifice to our cause."

"No one sacrifices my fiancé! Let her go!" cried Kyle, thrashing out at the woman. 

"Kyle! Go get Alex and the others! Hurry!" shouted Nash. "You don't have much time! If, if you don't make it, please, send Mia my love!"

Elvina snickered. "Well then, you have other friends, I see?" she said. "Disciples, hold back that ruffian! He must NOT interfere!"

Kyle looked like he was trying to make a decision on what to do- rush in and save his friends, or go and get the others? Unfortunately, that gave the Disciples time to knock him out with the blunt end of a wooden plank. "Jess. . ." he said as he fainted.

"Kyle!" cried Jessica and she and Nash were dumped into one of the waiting boats.

"Leave him there," said Elvina. "He does not concern us."

"KYLE!!"  


"KYLE!!"

Mia looked up. "Huh?" she asked sleepily. She looked around the warehouse they'd chosen to sleep in and saw no signs of Kyle. "Alex! Luna! Wake up! Kyle! He's gone!"

Alex and Luna groggily woke up. "What?" asked Luna. 

"Kyle! He's gone! And. . . I, I think I heard Jessica scream!"

"What?" said Alex. "Let's go! Now!" His two female companions quickly got up and out of the warehouse door. "Which way?"

"This way- what are all those boats doing going out at this hour of the night?" asked Mia. She, Luna, and Alex looked out to see a few dozen boats heading out to a strange shrine out in the middle of the ocean. "What about that shrine? It wasn't there earlier."

"Something's definitely up," said Alex. "Let's go, I can sense something is really wrong here."

"Double for me," said Luna. "Look! Isn't that Kyle?" The trio looked down the dock to see a figure pulling himself off the floor of the dock. The group ran over and sure enough, it was Kyle. The Nanza escort specialist looked out at the water forlornly.

"Kyle?" asked Mia. "What happened?"

"I heard something outside and saw all these people in hooded robes standing around. Then they lifted something up. It, it was Jessica and Nash. Those red robe people are evil. They want to sacrifice them."

"What!?" asked Luna. "You, you can't be- you are serious."

"Jessica, she, she looked so scared. Nash even told me to tell Mia he loved her if he doesn't get out of this alive," said Kyle. Mia bit her lip and just barely stopped herself from sobbing hysterically into Luna's shirt. "We've got to get out to that island and stop those freaks from killing Jess and Nash!"

Alex looked out onto the water. "We've got to. But how do we get out there? Swim?"

"Um, I don't think that's a good idea," said Luna. "We'd be better off getting a boat."

"Well, let's get a boat than!" said Kyle. "I'm sure that we can just borrow a boat."

Luna rolled her eyes. "Kyle. . ."

"What?" asked the dark haired drunk.

"Isn't that stealing?" said Mia. 

"Not if we return it when we're done," he said. "Now, anyone have a hairpin or some I can use to pick a lock?"


	5. Episode Five

Episode Five: A Sick and Twisted Turn of Fate

The Disciples arrived at the island late at night. Elvina made the call that they'd sleep, then complete the ceremony the next day. Nash and Jessica exchanged looks of slight relief, knowing that their friends had a little extra time to come for them. The two were escorted into the dark shrine. It was so dark that the two captives could hardly tell each other from one of the Disciples. 

It wasn't until they were thrown in a more "classic" jail cell that they were finally left alone. Nash used what little magic he had and sparked a small fire in a small pile of hay. "How long until you think the others come?" asked Nash.

"I don't know," said Jessica, rubbing her arms. "It's cold in here."

"That's probably partially due to the fact you're arms and part of legs are completely bare," said Nash. "Come a little closer to the fire if you're cold."

Jessica slowly crept over to the fire and kneeled before the warm glow. She saw Nash slowly drawing something in the dust on the cold, hard floor. On a closer look, she saw he was drawing a picture of what appeared to be Mia. "You really miss her, don't you?"

"I can't wait until I can hold her in my arms again," he said. "I'm sure you must miss Kyle, too, especially after what happened back there."

"He can take a lot," said Jessica. "I bet he woke up a few minutes after he got knocked in the head."

Nash just slowly nodded. "What do you think'll happen tomorrow?"

"I don't know, but at least they aren't going to make us get married or something," said Jessica.

"That would suck!" said Nash, laughing for the first few times in the past few days. "Us? Married? Oh man, one of us would be dead within the first week!"

"Hour?" said Jessica. "Actually, I think that this whole mess has brought us closer."

Nash looked up at Jessica like she'd grown a second head. "Closer?"

"Yeah," said Jessica. "Normally we're at each other's throats. But we've been really good about not getting into an argument as of late. Think about it. For once we've gotten along!"

"I'd say we subconsciously formed a truce because of the drastic measures of our current situation," said Nash. 

"Yeah, you're probably right," said Jessica, yawning. "Sleepy tired. . ."

Nash stifled his own yawn. "That doesn't sound like a bad idea. G'night," he said.

"Good night, Nash," said Jessica. 

"'night, Jess."

The following morning, there was still no sign of their friends from inside their jail cell. "Right now, I'm going to admit I'm more bored than nervous," said Nash. 

"Boredom is good," said Jessica. "Now come help me construct my hay bridge."

"There's a fine line between boredom and insanity, Jessica," said Nash. "A VERY fine line."

"What happened to that truce you were talking about?!" said Jessica.

"I'm just saying you're really close to loosing it," said Nash. "A hay bridge?"

Jessica looked at her creation. "You're right, it stinks." She then knocked it over. "I AM loosing it."

"No I saved you from loosing it," said Nash. By now he was absently playing with a piece of hay, bending it and flicking it.

A door near their cell opened. This caught the attention of the two captives. They saw Elvina enter, that grin from the night before plastered across her face. "Come," she said. She opened the door. "If you dare so much as try to run, your companion dies."

Nash and Jessica reluctantly left their cell and followed Elvina. The shrine was now lit with black fires that set everything to an almost greenish hue. "What's happening to us today?" asked Jessica.

"You'll see, young one," said Elvina. "To the first of the final preparations." 

"Oh, what's that?" asked Nash. "Are you going to bathe us in live worms, or are you going to stick needles all over our bodies one at a time to prolong the pain?"

"No, but they both sound like fun," said Elvina. "Not today. I have more important things to do."

"Live worms?" hissed Jessica. Nash shrugged. "I certainly hope you didn't learn that from Ghaleon."

"I read it in a book once," he said. Jessica groaned and continued to follow her friend and their captor down the dark, dreary hallways.

Their destination, to Jessica's surprise, was an entrance to a bath. There were two doors leading to opposite sides of the room, one with a female standing on the outside, the other with a male on the outside. "Get these two cleaned up," she said. "You both know what to do."

The female, who had curly red hair, took Jessica to one of the doors while the man, a dark skinned man with no hair, led Nash the other war. 

Jessica liked the bath. The water was warm and soapy and smelled nice. Plus her bathroom attendant, Maria, was very nice, despite the fact she brought up her doom a few times. "I really think you're a nice girl, too bad you're going to have to be killed," she said. "Luckily we're still a day away from that."

"Another day?!" said Jessica. This was a surprise. The clan had captured her and Nash almost four days ago. Yes, it was day five now of their week. Only two days remained for her to reunite with her friends. Plus she had to bust Nash out as well as herself. 

Maria dumped another bucket of water over Jessica's head. "There, that should do it," she said. "Let's get you dried off and ready." Jessica stood up and Maria handed her a towel. Jessica wrapped it around her body and dried off. The attendant towel dried her hair and brushed it out so it was long and silkly blonde.

When Jessica looked into the mirror, she almost smiled. She felt a lot better, knowing that Kyle and her friends were on their way. Maria then handed Jessica the dress she'd been wearing for the past several days. "It's been cleaned and fixed up," said Maria. "You're going to look so cute!"

Jessica blinked. What was that woman talking about? "Um, yeah," she said, slipping into the dress. Maria then handed her the boots, which Jessica also pulled on. "Where am I going next?" But the bathroom attendant had mysteriously vanished. _If they aren't killing us today, than what ARE they doing?_

That was when Elvina stepped in. "Ah, Jessica, good to see you're ready. Nash is. . . finishing up."

_Even in a situation like this, Nash is STILL obsessing over his hair, _mused Jessica. She followed Elvina outside. "Elvina, exactly what-"

"Silence!" said Elvina, just as Nash was ushered outside by the male bathroom attendant. The leader of the Black Fire turned to Nash and smiled. Nash stared at Elvina with confusion. "Good, you're finally finished. Now let's get going!"

"Wow, someone's in a hurry," Nash whispered. 

"I heard that you little- never mind," said Elvina.

Once they reached their destination, Nash evaluated the room. A gray table with two weird straps, a red thing and a white thing, two pillows on the floor, and lit candles on either end of the table. Elvina had a wide, Cheshire cat grin. She led Nash over to the pillow in front of the red thing- which Nash discovered was a knife- and made him kneel on the pillow. She then strapped his right hand onto the table. Jessica was then led to the other pillow, where her left hand was strapped down. 

Elvina grinned. "I love this ceremony. Really, I do."

"Uh oh," said Nash. "What are you gonna- AH!" The mage screamed when he felt the blade of the red knife slice across his palm. He cringed as the crimson blood seeped out of the incision. He tried to clasp his fist to stop some of the sting, but Elvina held his fingers down so his palm remained expose to the air. Jessica was experiencing the same pain, tears streaming down her cheeks. "What the hell did you do that for!?"

Elvina ignored Nash's objection and un-strapped the two now injured hands. As she did, she chanted a few words in a tongue neither understood. Then, without letting either fist close before she was ready, pressed the bloody palms together. She clasped their fingers down, locking the two hands together. 

Nash was beyond confusion, and he could tell Jessica was, too. Elvina said another chant, and suddenly, Nash felt, different. A sick feeling entered his stomach, followed by a strange feeling of an incredible calm. He slowly opened his eyes and saw Jessica seemed to have come out of the same daze. Elvina released their hands and, to Nash's shock, saw that any sign of the incision was gone. Jessica's cut was also gone, a look of utter bewilderment on her face as she ran her other hand over the previously injured palm. 

"Bring them back to their cell. We'll finish tomorrow," said Elvina. Two Disciples had entered the room and escorted them back to the cell they'd spent the previous night in. 

Once the guards left, Jessica and Nash wasted no time trying to figure out exactly what it was that Elvina had done to them. "Well, what did she do?" asked Nash. "I don't think that was your healing power."

"It wasn't," said Jessica, staring at her palm. "I think when our blood started mixing something happened."

Nash looked at his hand. "So your blood is in my hand?"

"By now your veins and arteries have carried it to other parts of your body," said Jessica. "Same with me and your blood."

"That's. . . gross," said Nash.

"Well, whatever happened, we have to look into it," said Jessica. "Maybe-"

"There you guys are!"

The two looked up and were overjoyed to see their friends. "Kyle! Get me out of here!" pleaded Jessica. Kyle ran over and grasped the bars above where Jessica had placed her hands.

"I'm going to rip this thing off!" said Kyle. But, his efforts were useless. Luna, on the other hand, had a key and easily unlocked the door. Nash and Jessica eagerly exited the cell, Jessica sharing an embrace with his fellow females.

"Let's get out of here," said Alex. "Nash? Jess? Full story once we're back with Willamina."

"Oh, that's not a problem," said Jessica. As she spoke, Kyle had gotten behind her, ready to place his hands on her shoulders and give her a kiss. Just as his fingertips made contact, a sudden shock was sent through both of the people. Jessica just jumped, while Kyle was sent flying backwards. "Kyle!"

"Ah!" cried Kyle, grasping his not slightly burnt hands. "Jessica, what did you-"

"I didn't do ANYTHING!" said Jessica. "I, I don't know what happened."

Mia gasped. She nervously walked over to Nash and lightly placed a finger on his shoulder blade. She yelped as she was sent reeling backwards a few feet. "Mia!" cried Nash.

"That's it, we're out of here NOW," said Alex.

Once the group was safely back at the docks, the two former captives were given a change of clothes. Nash was more than happy to get out of the red outfit and into a pair of jeans and shirt. Kyle also tossed him a denim jacket, which he gladly took, considering the cool weather. 

Jessica seemed equally happy with a pair of black bell bottoms and pink sweater. Kyle was keeping his distance though, as was Alex. Nash could tell Jessica was upset that her fiancé and one of her good friends was ignoring her. Nash also could tell that Mia and Luna were edgy around him, too. 

"Hey." Nash looked up to see Jessica standing next to him. "You look. . . weird."

"I'm, I'm afraid to touch Mia. You, you saw what happened to Kyle," said Nash. "I, I don't know what's happened to us, but, I'm scared."

"I am, too," said Jessica. "We haven't got the slightest clue as to what Elvina did to us, but I'm sure Willamina has the answer."

"What seems to be the problem? You've done everything I wanted a day early!"

The group looked over to see Willamina had joined them. Mia stood up. "Well, Nash and Jessica had a kind of bad run-in, and something happened to them. Bad."

Willamina looked over at the two in question. "Let's go back to the In Between so we can figure out what happened to you two. Uh, why are you so-"

"Look, I've spent the past few days worried sick about Jessica. I love her more than anything. Then a day or so ago I see her tied up being carried about by the Disciples of the Black Fire, and when I tried to hug her when we found them, I couldn't touch her," said Kyle.

"The Disciples?" said Willamina. She turned to Nash and Jessica, who nodded. "This is serious. I've dealt with them before. Come."

". . .and then she sent us back to our cell," said Nash. The travelers had since re-grouped in the In Between, Jessica and Nash sharing one of the couches since the others were afraid to go near them. "Willamina, after we told you about that last ceremony you've gone completely white in the face."

Willamina gulped. "I think I know what it is but I need to see it for myself. If I know the Black Fire clan well enough, then I might be right. Alex? I know you aren't going to want to, but please tap Nash on the shoulder, then Jessica."

"If it'll help figure out what's wrong, I'll do it," he said. He boldly walked over to the two. Nothing happened when he tapped Nash's shoulder. When he got close to Jessica, he was sent flying backward into a wall. Luna stood up and immediately went to his aide. "I'm, I'm okay," he said. "Wow."

"Mia? Tap Jessica, then Nash. And someone, be ready to catch her," said Willamina. Kyle got at the ready, giving Mia a nod. Mia tapped Jessica on the shoulder and smiled. She then reached for Nash. Once her fingertips brushed against his cheek, she, too, was sent reeling backward. Kyle caught her, but fell into the opposite couch. Mia sniffled. 

"Willamina, will you get to the point!?" said Nash. Jessica nodded. 

"All right. Now, please hold each other's hands," said Willamina.

"Won't we both be sent flying backwards?" said Jessica. 

"Trust me," said Willamina. 

Nervously, Nash looked over at Jessica and took her hand. Nothing happened, even when he placed his free hand over her untouched skin. "Nothing, nothing happened," he said.

"Just as I thought," said Willamina. 

"What did that woman do to them?" asked Luna.

"She married them."


	6. Episode Six

Episode Six: WHAT!?

This episode has personal narratives by Nash and Jessica. Why? Because most of you want to get inside their heads right about now due to the really mean thing I did.

(Nash)

"What the hell are you talking about!?" I snapped, getting to my feet. "Jessica and I are NOT married. There wasn't any rings or vows or anything like that! Besides, I love Mia, not her. And Jessica's supposed to be engaged to Kyle!"

"Willamina, I don't know how you came to that conclusion. There was- the blood switch," said Jessica. Her eyes widened. "That's it, isn't it? It's some sort of a magical martial bond isn't it?"

Willamina nodded grimly. "I'm afraid so. This is known as a blood-lock, because a small amount of your blood was swapped, as Jessica correctly stated. This means that Nash can't make any sort of physical contact with another female unless it's his daughter, mother, or sister, or, well, you. That goes for Jessica, too, with other men. It was invented by a group of magicians who were afraid of their wives being unfaithful. This way they knew if she became pregnant it was their child and that she wasn't seeing anyone-"

Jessica, at this point, was staring at me through teary eyes. I knew deep down inside that no matter how much I tried to deny it or not believe her, it was true. Like it or not, she and I were husband and wife. Jess knew that, too. Without saying another word, she turned on her heels and ran out of the room in tears. I stood up and watched her go, feeling some of the same emotions, for sure. The room grew silent. I looked over at Kyle and Mia. Kyle looked half angry, half devastated, while Mia was looking at me like a treasured doll on a high shelf she couldn't reach.

Luna was the one who broke the silence. She stood right up, looking at Willamina with a serious monotone. "This is a nightmare," said the former Goddess. "What are we going to do?"

"Well," said Willamina, "I can probably break the spell if I get enough of the crystal power back. As I am now, I don't have enough magic."

Alex stood up, looking ROYALLY pissed off. "Crystal this, crystal that, there are SOME-"

"I'm serious!" said Willamina. "Breaking a blood-lock is an exceptionally high grade of magic! If I tried to free them at my current power level, it wouldn't work! I'd need about six or seven of the crystals, it's not as much as it sounds."

"Well, you're not the one who was captured by the crazed lunatics and can't get near the one your really care about without hurting them!" I snapped. "How can you be so insensitive?! You saw Jess run off. She's upset about this, and I don't blame her! Do you have any idea what she's going through, what I'm going through!? Mia and Kyle have to be going through something close to it. And you've done nothing to make any of us feel much better about this!"

The Keeper of the Realms looked at me though baby blue eyes, a wisdom beyond my knowledge peering through them. "I know you're both upset by this. I would be upset in her position, too. But as my power is now, I can do little beyond levitation and going through to the different realms. You're a magician from the City of Vane, you should understand something like this would take a lot of magic to correct. You know that there was powerful magic involved in that ceremony and a lot of that same powerful magic is running through you right now."

I turned my eyes down. I thought back to the ceremony. It was exceptionally powerful magic, and I could sense it still within me. "You're right," I said. "It would take a lot of magic to correct this."

"Well, is there anything we can do to help?" asked Alex. "Something that could add to your power or at least make contact bearable?"

"I'm afraid not," said Willamina. "The only thing that would be able to help me help your friends is the crystal. And, I'm sorry about being so selfish."

"Well, it sounds like that means a lot to you," said Luna. Then, she narrowed her eyes. "Wait a minute, you NEVER told us why Alex and Kyle were-"

"Oh, that?" said Willamina. "It was probably just curious who those two were."

"The crystal can think?" said Alex.

"Yes, very much so," said Willamina. "A long time before I was even born, the soul of a brave young woman was imbedded into the crystal after she was nearly killed in a battle. She's really nice, just a little too friendly."

"Oh," said Mia. "That's interesting."

I looked out the door that Jessica had left through. "Uh, should someone go after Jess and tell her that we might be able to get rid of this stupid blood lock?" I asked. 

Willamina sighed. "I'd suggest you go."

"What!?" I asked. 

"Are you forgetting that you two are now married?" said Willamina. "And at that, in a very tightly bound marriage."

"Yeah, yeah, I know, but-" I started.

Willamina laughed. "You know, it'll be about a month that you'll be married at the least, so you two should probably have a long talk anyways," she said. 

Kyle sighed heavily. "Nash, as much as I HATE the thought of you and Jessica, well, together like this, you really didn't have much of a choice. And you obviously don't love her like that, so as long as you behave yourself I won't be forced to kill you when this is all over."

"Believe me, Kyle, I have no intention of going far at all with her," I replied. "Because I KNOW you'll have my head on a stick if I do."

Mia looked at me through large, sad eyes. I gave her the same look, feeling a terrible pain in my heart when I did. "I'll be back," I said. While still in the doorway, I mouthed "I won't ever stop loving you" to Mia. She smiled back, mouthing back "I won't ever stop loving you either, Nash" to me. I grinned and left.

(Jessica)

I couldn't believe this. Out of ALL the men in the world, I had to be forced into marrying NASH!? Heck, Alex would have been better than Nash! I mean, Nash was. . . Nash. I'd met him as a self-centered little brat who thought little of the world outside of Vane. And now I was stuck with him as a husband.

After I realized Willamina wasn't joking around, I ran out of the room and through several hallways until I reached the outside of what I'm assuming to be her house. Or mansion, I quite frankly didn't care either way. I needed some time to think this out. I found a small pond with a small wooden dock leading out a little ways into the water. I walked over to the edge and sat down, looking down into the water.

I looked into the water and smiled to see I was my old self. I was a beast person again, which was some comfort. I smiled softly, rubbing the soft material of the pink sweater my friends had given me after they got us out of that horrible shrine. I cringed at the thought. Elvina had better pray she not see them again. She wasn't sure who was going to cause more damage- her, Nash, Mia, or Kyle. Although she was sure that it wouldn't take too much to convince Luna or Alex to maul her, either.

I heard footsteps on the dock behind me. I ignored them. I felt the person sit down. I didn't bother turning around. I really wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone. Whoever they were, they weren't moving. I sighed heavily. "Mia, Luna, whichever one of you it is-"

"Sorry, it's me." Oh great, what did HE want?

I turned to Nash. "Well? What?"

Nash frowned. Then, he sighed. "First of all, the good news. The good news is that Willamina thinks she can get rid of the blood lock if she gets enough of her crystal power back," he said.

I brightened up. "Really? You mean we won't have to stay like this forever?"

Nash shook his head. "Nope. Willamina's estimated about a month or so before she has enough of her power back."

I groaned. "A month?"

"She could have said a year."

I sulked. "That would REALLY suck."

My reluctant "husband" laughed. "Yeah, it does, doesn't it? Kind of ironic we were joking about that before this whole mess, huh?"

I recalled our conversation in the dungeon cell Elvina had thrown us into. _"What do you think'll happen tomorrow?" "I don't know, but at least they aren't going to make us get married or something!" "That would suck! Us? Married? Oh man, one of us would be dead within the first week!" "Hour?" _I almost laughed at the memory. "Can we say 'jinx'?"

Nash pulled himself up next to me, rubbing a flat stone. "Maybe," he said, flicking it into the water. I watched as it skipped close to five times before it plunked into the water. "Either way, she recommended we have a talk. You know, try to get some of our feelings sorted out so we can at least go the whole month without killing each other."

"I'll agree with that," I said. I cleared my throat. "Okay, so according to the rules of blood lock, you can't so much as lay a hand on another female unless she's directly related to you, or, me. And I can't lay a hand on a man unless-"

"-they're directly related to you or me," finished Nash. "That means that things are going to get REALLY weird around Mia and Kyle for the both of us."

I snorted. "They're both probably pissed right about now."

"Yeah, Kyle said if we went anywhere that he'd kill me," he replied. 

I sighed heavily. "At least I know he still loves me." I lowered my head. "But what, what if he meets someone else while we're going through the realms or something?"

Nash nervously laid a hand on my shoulder. I looked back up at him. "I don't think he'd do that, Jess. You know that when Luna, Alex and I first met him he was drunk?"

"I'm not surprised," I said. "We all know Kyle's a drunk, so why's it so important now?"

"He got drunk because he was upset over the fight you two had gotten into right before the Dragonmaster Zoc thing on Lann Island."

My eyes widened. "He got upset because of me?!" I said. 

"He's crazy about you. You're his world. Everything that has any value to him is nothing compared to how much he values you and your love for him. You're supposed to be married to him, not me. This has got to be tearing him apart, especially where he was so close to rescuing you before the Disciples knocked him out," said Nash. "Look, a month isn't as bad as it sounds. I know you can tough it out."

"You really think so?" I said. 

"You're too stubborn to NOT tough it out. And now that I think about it, next time Kyle says something stupid, slapping him will do a lot more than leave a mark."

I grinned. "Sounds amusing, but I don't want to seriously hurt him," I said. "Anything else you wanted to discuss?"

Nash shrugged. "Not really, no."

"Should we go back to the others?" I asked. 

"No, not yet, they probably have their own talking to do," said Nash. "Namely with Mia and Kyle. They've got to be as upset over this as we are, if not more."

I nodded. "Nash?"

"Yeah?"

"I need a shoulder to cry on right about now. Mind if I use yours?" Nash nodded and I began to cry to again. He held me lightly, trying to calm me down. At that point I wasn't as upset over the fact it was him, but the fact that it happened at all.

(Nash)

Having Jessica cry on my shoulder like that felt weird. I mean, I really hadn't ever seen her as anything aside from a friend before this all happened. But now, well, we were kind of more than that. And we weren't really happen about that.

"Is she okay?"

I turned my head to see that Alex had come out. "She's just really upset over this whole thing," I said. "Did you guys have a talk in there?"

"Yeah. Mia's pretty much in the same shape as Jess," said Alex. "She just hasn't gotten to the 'cried herself to sleep' stage, yet." I looked down to see Jessica was asleep on my shoulder. I grimaced. "Think you can manage getting her back inside?"  
"I think so," I said. I sighed heavily, slipping one of my arms under her knees, then hoisting myself up. She didn't budge.

"Kyle. . ." she mumbled. 

I winced. "I hate seeing her like this."

Alex raised an eyebrow. "Please don't tell me that the blood lock makes you feel for each other-"

"Nah, Jess and I just got to know each other while the Disciples had us. She feels like the younger sister I never had," I said. "In Meryod, that would make some sort of weird sense."

Alex nodded. "I would help you, but I don't want to go flying into the pond."

I laughed. "No, it's okay, I think I got her. Just tell me where to drop her."

"I think Willamina's working out room arrangements," said Alex. "Mia's probably already gone to her room and Kyle, well, he might have raided the liquor cellar by now."

I frowned. "Depending on what he drinks, well, that'll tell us how upset he is."

"We're in trouble if it's the vodka," said Alex. "I know that's what he drinks when he's REALLY upset over something."

Once we were inside, Willamina instructed us down the hallway. Jessica had her own room, which I realized was good. One, she couldn't share a room with Kyle for obvious reasons. Two, there could be odd feelings or hostility between her and Mia. Three, well, Luna and Alex were sharing a room. And as for me? I was not about to jump in bed with her. Which is why everyone but Alex and Luna got their own rooms. Secretly I wondered if after the blood lock was destroyed if Mia would want me to bunk with her.

Once I left her room, I decided to go exploring. I figured that if on our next mission something went wrong with me and Jessica, well, we might not be allowed to go out again until this whole mess was resolved. Meaning getting to know my environment would be of use.

Willamina had a nice sized home. Kitchens, a library, several different kinds of labs and display rooms, a few game rooms, other guest rooms, and even a greenhouse. I saw Luna poking around in the garden, so I decided to avoid that for the time being. So I instead went to the library and started looking through the books.

Interestingly enough, that's where I found Willamina. She was looking through a book with a black and red cover. She looked up. "Oh, hi," she said. "Look, I guess I was a little insensitive earlier."

I sat down at the table across from her. "It's okay, I used to be that way myself sometimes. It took becoming one of the Five Heroes to change that," I said. "Being in Vane for so long, floating high above everyone else and conducting powerful magic kinda went to my head."

"Yes, but if I hadn't have gotten so mad and made you all split up, this might have not happened," she said.

"But then it would have been someone else," I pointed out. I looked at the book she was reading. "What is that?"

"It's a book on the clan that kidnapped you and Jessica. I've dealt with them in the past. They aren't exactly a real threat, but they are a nuisance," said Willamina. "They have branches in several realms, but they don't have inter-clan interaction. They do communicate, but they are all different, some more destructive than others. I'm trying to look up the procedure that happened to you two so I can at least know how the ceremony is done."

"Is there anything I can do to help?" I asked. "Not just that, but anything."

"Well, not really," said Willamina. "But I'll let you know if something comes up."

I nodded. "All right, you know where to find me if you need me."

"You should get some sleep, anyways," said Willamina. "It's been a long night for all of us, you and Jessica especially. Go. Room. Sleep. Now."

"Yes, ma'am," I said, turning on my heels and leaving the room.

(Jessica)

I woke up lying on abed in a strange room. I looked around, trying to figure out where I was. I was still clothed and lying on the sheets, so I didn't think anything happened. I rolled over to the side of the bed and stood up. I quickly ran my hands through my hair and opened the door leading outside.

"Good morning, Jessica, sleep well?" Jessica turned to see Luna smiling at her.

"Where did I just come from?" asked Jessica.

"One of Willamina's guest rooms. Nash dropped you off last night before he went exploring and went to his own room," said Luna.

I blinked. "Nash carried me?"

"Well, out of all of the girls, you're the tallest and the heaviest- no offense- so we couldn't carry you. Plus, you feel asleep while crying on his shoulder. Then, Alex and Kyle really CAN'T carry you because of the blood lock, and it would have been hard for Nash to transfer you over to Willamina without waking you up OR sending Willamina flying across the room," said Luna. "Everyone else is up but us. I think. Alex wasn't in our room, I know that."

I weakly smiled. "Is there going to be food out there?"

"Smells like it," said Luna. She sniffed the air. "Mmm, it smells so good. . ."

"I want food!" I said, darting towards the general direction of the smell. I ran through a dining room filled with my friends and into the kitchen, crashing into the cook. I yelped as the two of us tumbled to the floor.

"Ah! Jessica!!!!"

After a brief incident of rolling on the ground in a confused mess of limbs and slamming into a wall, I realized just whom I'd crashed into and was currently sitting on top of.

"Nash?!" I said. Sure enough, I saw Nash's surprised brown eyes looking back at me, blinking in confusion. "I didn't know you could cook!" 

"Uh, Jess, really, could you PLEASE get off?" he asked. I pushed myself off of him, allowing Nash to sit up. "Yeah, I've gotten kitchen duty so many times at the Guild that the cooks eventually decided that I'd be more of a use if I helped them cook rather than wash dishes and scrub the floor. But WHY did you run in here?! One of us could have gotten burned!"

That was when we realized we were hearing snickering sounds in the background. I turned my head and frowned to see our friends standing in the doorway of the kitchen, laughing at the sight of us. I bit my bottom lip to keep from crying. Nash stood up, brushing off the green apron he was wearing, and placed his hands on his hips.

"Shut up," he said. "I'm surprised at you guys!"

Kyle looked at me, looking more annoyed than guilty. "Well sorry!"

Nash growled. "Look, just try to avoid laughing at her until this mess is over," he said. "Her emotions are a mess and laughing at her is the worse thing to do. You saw how easily she got upset yesterday when Willamina told us exactly what it was that happened, so just lay off, Kyle. I know you two like to joke around but now is not the right time."

I stood up. I looked at my friends. Nash was standing up for me. Kyle was being a jerk, and Nash was telling him off. I wasn't sure what to think. Things had suddenly been reversed. Usually it was Nash being a jackass, and whenever I needed to be stuck up for, it was usually Kyle who did it.

"Well, Nash, you might be married to her, but I'M her fiancé. I know a lot more about her than you ever will. And I know that she's taking this just fine and she's just going to sit tight until this whole thing is blown over," said Kyle.

My eyes widened in anger. "Kyle, you shut up. Nash has been a LOT kinder to me than you have ever since all this bull happened! What you said to Nash before he went to go and talk to me is a given and there was no need to say that!"

"Jess is pissed," said Alex.

That was when I went crazy. I wanted to hurt Kyle for being such a jerk. Something that would drive him crazy. Something that he'd loose sleep over. Something he would CRY over. 

I kissed Nash. 

(Nash)

After Jessica blew up at Kyle and Alex stated the obvious, Jess shoved me up against the wall and kissed me. My eyes popped open from surprise. What the heck was she doing?! We weren't supposed to go anywhere with the marriage, so why was she kissing me?!

"Jessica!" said Luna. My panicked eyes looked over my friends, all in shock. 

Jessica pulled away, looking really mad. "Maybe you'll think twice about being a jerk, Kyle. Just maybe," she said. "Nash, c'mon, let's go."

I was panicked. I was a dead man. I was SOO dead. Kyle was going to strangle me with my own intestines. Jess grabbed me by the wrist and began to drag us out of the kitchen.

Everyone split apart, not wanting the risk of brushing up against either one of us. I turned my head and made eye contact with Kyle. When he blinked, I saw two tears slip down his cheeks.

Jessica ended up dragging us back to the pond. "Jessica, what the hell did you think you were doing?!" I asked. "You know that I-"

Before I could protest any further, Jessica, gave me another kiss. This time I pulled away. "Jessica, please, talk to me," I pleaded. "I don't know what you're planning, and you're scaring me. What is going on with you?!"

Jessica didn't seem to respond. When she tried another move, I sent a small electric shock into her hand. She yelped back, clutching her hand. "Ow! What did you do that for!?" 

I nervously knelt down next to her. "Jess, you're going crazy. What the heck happened back there?" I asked.

"Kyle was being a jerk and you weren't," said Jessica. "So I wanted to hurt HIS feelings."

I sighed. "Kyle's immature like that. And he isn't the brightest crayon on the box, we all know that. He's just upset over this whole situation and by kissing me THEN dragging me out here you made it worse!" I said. "We have to keep tension down and that was the worse thing either of us could have done."

"But he shouldn't have been that immature!" said Jessica. "It hurt me when he said that I was that tough. I'm, I'm not always like that. I can be sensitive, too."

I sighed heavily. "And as bull headed as Kyle. You know, I'm pretty sure I saw him cry back there."

"Cry?" asked Jessica. 

I nodded. "Unless he lets tears flow when he's happy."

Jessica sighed heavily. "I'm just really confused."

"Jess?" 

The two of us turned to see Kyle had joined us. Jess fumed. I groaned. I was stuck in a VERY bad place. "What, Kyle?"

"I, I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were that upset," he said. "I guess, I guess I'm just, jealous."

"Jealous? Of me?" I asked.

"She's right. You have been better to her than I have since everything's happened," said Kyle. "I just wanted to apologize."

Jessica smiled. "Apology accepted. This is going to take adjustments for all of us. And I'm sorry I kissed Nash."

"Apology accepted," Kyle and I said at the same time. Jessica laughed.

"What am I ever going to do with the two of you?" she said, draping an arm over each of our shoulders. I cringed as I watched Kyle fly into the pond. "Oops."


	7. Episode Seven

Episode Seven: The Next Realm

Once Jessica, Nash, and Kyle returned, Willamina made an announcement. "The next crystal you're going after is finally located!"

Nash laughed. "That's one more orbe closer to Jessica NOT being my wife!"

"Well at least you're being positive about it," said Jessica, sending her husband a dirty look. Nash gulped, edging away from the obviously angry beastwoman. Mia stared at Nash helplessly, rubbing her hands back and forth. Kyle half-chuckled. 

"Jess, is that what I look like whenever you yell at me like that?" asked Kyle.

Jessica looked Nash over. "Basically."

"So do we need another costume change?" asked Alex.

"Yes, that would be nice," said Willamina. She peered into the crystal ball. "It looks like this crystal is on a world that's a constant party."

"A constant party? That must cost a TON of money," said Mia.

Willamina shook her head. "No, everything there is free. Everyone just gives those at the party all the wine, dresses, food, and everything. They work for the parties they throw."

"That's weird," said Luna, scratching her head.

"I'm also pretty sure that I won't need to change your hair color, but Jessica needs another ear trimming," said Willamina. "Jess?"

Jessica stood up and walked over to Willamina, allowing her to slowly use magic to shape her somewhat pointed ears to the round, more humanoid ears the others had. Willamina looked her over, snorted, and then removed the lines on either side of her cheek.

"The wonders of magic never cease to amaze me," said Mia.

"So, um, what exactly do we wear?" asked Kyle.

"Tuxedos and ballroom gowns," said Willamina. She twirled her finger in the air, then pointed it at the travelers. In a bright flash, the boys were clad in tuxedos and the girls in beautiful ballroom gowns. "I'd also suggest you all pair up. Some of these men are single and think nothing of bringing any girl whom they think is single into a back room."

The girls cringed. Jessica sighed heavily, looking at Nash. She knew that either way, she was stuck with him. Alex and Luna exchanged looks, whispered something in each other's ears, and nodded in approval with each other. "We have an idea," said Luna.

"Hmm?" asked Kyle.

"Well, in light that the four of you have suddenly had a. . . serious complication in your love lives, we were thinking that to be fair, Luna could go as Kyle's escort and I could take Mia," said Alex.

"You'd do that?" asked Mia. "But you and Luna are-"

"We know this, but can you honestly say that Jessica and Kyle aren't close? That you and Nash aren't somewhat close?" said Luna. "We just want to lessen harsh feelings between you guys, that's all."

"Especially after Jessica's stunt this morning," Nash mumbled. Jessica sent him a glare, which he winced at. 

"Well, it sounds. . . noble," said Mia. "In an. . . odd, way."

Willamina made a small, sideways grin. "Well, it does seem to make a little sense. . . do all parties agree?"

"Well, okay, it's for a logical reason," said Mia.

"Yeah, sure, why not?" said Kyle.

"Alex, Luna, you guys, are you sure you want to do this because of us?" asked Jessica.

Luna nodded, rubbing the silky blue material of her dress between his thumb and index finger. "Absolutely. If four of us have to be miserable, then we'll all be miserable together!"

Nash sighed. "Well, okay, things are weird enough, and I don't think even doing that can make things any weirder."

"Oh, believe me, it will get MUCH weirder," said Willamina. "Oh! One more thing. I found a few things of interest."

"Like what?" asked Luna.

"First off, for the girls, I have these," said Willamina, revealing three pendants crafted from a ruby, a sapphire, and a diamond. All we carved into heart shapes. Willamina tossed Jessica the blue one, Mia the white one, and Luna the red one. "Aside from being pretty, they'll begin to glow if you're close to the crystal. Second, for the gentlemen."

"We don't have to wear those things, do we?" said Kyle.

"No, they're nothing like that!" said Willamina. "They're watches. But, if you flip up the clock part, there's two little buttons." She tossed each of the guys one of the watches. "The blue one will teleport you and your current escort back here, and the red one will allow you to communicate with me."

"That's neat," said Alex, flipping back the clock face.

Willamina then pulled out an old box. "The last thing I have will help Nash and Jessica a LITTLE bit. Normally, a blood lock will react to the slightest brush. These will make a casual brush of the hand not cause any unsuspecting person to be sent flying into the opposite wall. Still, if it's purposely, like a shoulder pat, they'll still get to experience what a fly feels." Willamina handed Jessica velvet box. Apon opening them, she gulped.

"They look like wedding rings," she said. "Oh joy."

"They'll be hardly noticeable," said Willamina. 

Nash closed his eyes. "I wonder if someone very powerful doesn't like us very much. Just curious."

"I agree," said Jessica. "Now shut up unless you want the girlie ring."

Mia shook her head. "Its almost amusing watching Jessica torment Nash like this."

Kyle looked at Jessica nervously. "This isn't a preview of what happens after this entire mess- blood lock and magic crystal together- is over, is it?"  
"No," said Jessica. "I'm just enjoying bossing Nash around, that's all. I won't boss you around nearly as much, unless you'd want me to."

Willamina held back a laugh. "Just, just go, okay?"

"This isn't a party!" said Kyle. The group was standing in the doorway to a rather large ballroom filled with happy couples dancing and laughing. "Where's all the beer and strippers?"

"This isn't that kind of a party, Kyle," said Mia. "These are the kinds of parties they have for weddings, high class social events, and fund raisers."

"Hey, maybe we can throw one of these to help fund Vane's reconstruction," said Nash. 

"Not a bad idea, but we need to start looking for the crystal," said Alex. "You and Jessica should be ESPECIALLY interested in finding it."

Jessica groaned. "No need to remind us. Let's split up. Try to act like you belong here. Kyle, no belching."

"Aw!" Before he could protest further, Luna grumbled and dragged him out into the crowd of people. 

"I feel bad for Luna," said Mia. "She's got a handful for herself."

"And under normal circumstances only Jess can handle it, but that's beside the point. Jess, Nash you two check out some of the less-crowded places. We don't want to arise any suspicion if people start getting tossed around wildly and you're always at the scene," said Alex. "Those rings only work against casual brushes, remember that."

"This way," said Nash. He started walking down the hallway away from the ballroom, Jessica following. Alex took Mia's hand and led her out onto the ballroom floor. 

"Alex, do you know how to dance?" asked Mia.

"Can't say I do," said Alex. "Why?"

"Care to learn?" she asked. 

"Uh, no thanks," said Alex. "We should try and keep to places where we think the crystal ended up."

Mia frowned. "Where are we going to find it in this crowd of people?"

"I haven't got the slightest clue," said Alex. "You?"

"Maybe. . . maybe it's concealed in a plant or something," said Mia.

"So maybe we can try and 'dance' our way over to the plants," said Alex. "That'll make it look less suspicious."

"Fine, then you do need lessons in ball room dancing," said Mia. 

"But this is JUST to blend in, mind you," said Alex.

Mia laughed. "I know that! Now, it appears as if they're waltzing, so let's get started. This is a favorite of mine and Nash's. Nash. . ."

"You'll get him back, I know you will," said Alex.

Mia sighed heavily. _You have no idea, do you?_

"Why would it be in a storage room, Nash?" asked Jessica.

"I don't know, it was at the docks last time," said Nash, scratching his head. "Is your necklace glowing?"

"No, I'm afraid not," said Jessica. "Let's try someplace else."

"Like where?" asked Nash.

"Hey, look at this here, two kids snooping' around the place."

Jessica turned her head to see a large, ugly man in a tuxedo a few sizes to small standing in the exit to the storage room. "What do you want, ugly?"

"Now, now, little pretty, you and your friend aren't supposed to be in here. Let me escort you out," he said, grasping her wrist. Jessica's eyes widened when the man wasn't sent flying backwards.

"An ogre," said Nash. "Oh great, we've been found by an ogre!"

"That explains why he didn't go flying into the wall," said Jessica. "Completely different species." She struggled against the ogre's grip. "Let me go you big lug!"

"No, I like you," he said, smiling a big, toothless grin at Jessica.

Nash, knowing that he either do something or get mauled by Kyle, stomped over to the ogre. "Look, bucko, she's MY wife, so don't lay a finger on her or else!"

The ogre looked at Nash and began to life. "Oh really, little man, and just what are you going to do about it?" said the ogre. "Beat me up?"

"No, I don't need to," said Nash. He raised his hand and began to chant a small spell he'd learned when he first began studying magic. Small sparks began to emit from his fingers. The ogre looked at the sparks in terror. "Let her go or you'll get hit by lightning."

"Okay, okay, I'll let her go, just DON'T HURT ME!" With that, the ogre ran out of the room near tears. 

Jessica looked at Nash. "What was THAT all about?" she asked.

"I had to get him to let you go somehow, and I'm not like Kyle or Alex who could have probably kicked that guy's butt," said Nash. "Now let's try to avoid that guy before he figures out my magic is really low."

"You mean you haven't refilled it yet?" asked Jessica. 

"You haven't either, no Starlights or Silverlights to be found," said Nash. "I'm down to about five MP, one short of conducting a Thunder Bomb."

Jessica just shook her head. "Let's just get out of- here," she said. "He brought friends."

"That was quick," said Nash. The ogre had returned with two more ogres, both about his size or bigger. "And very bad." He narrowed his eyes. "Get behind me, I have an idea." Once Jessica was anxiously looking at the ogres from over Nash's shoulder, the thunder mage began to chant. 

"What are you doing?" said Jessica.

Nash ignored her, continuing whatever it was he was doing. The ogres stopped, staring at him intently. Suddenly, the three were surrounded by a pale yellow hue. A beam of light shot from the three towards Nash, causing him to jerk back slightly at the impact. Jessica yelped. "I'm okay," he said.

"What did you do?!" demanded Jessica.

"Just pirated some magic power," he said. "One Spark Ball should do it." He quickly cast the spell, causing the three to fall over frozen in place. "It only lasts a few minutes, let's go!" The two darted towards the door, jumping over the now twitching bodies of the ogres.

"Where are we going?!" asked Jessica.

"Away from them! We'd better hide out for a while, so keep quiet," said Nash. He poked his head into another room, this one appearing to be some sort of a library. "I thought this world was all parties."

Jessica stepped inside and browsed the shelf. "I think this is the largest cocktail and party game library ever created," she said.

Nash rolled his eyes. "That figures," he mumbled. "_1,001 Ways to Get Drunk and Get Laid_. Wonder if Kyle or one of his men ever read that."

"Kyle, no. His men? It's their Bible," Jessica said. "Look, we're here to hide, right? So where do we hide?"

"Um, I dunno," said Nash. "Any ideas?"

"One of the tables up against the walls," said Jessica. "You take one, I'll take the other."

Luna sighed heavily. They were waiting until this whole mess was over before they did something that involved couples. Especially if she was going to agree to Kyle. The drunk in question was having a belching contest with a few guys he'd met at the party.

The former Goddess eyed the punch bowl, her mouth suddenly feeling dry. "That looks so good. . ." she said, licking her lips. "Oh, what the heck?" She walked over to the snack table when she felt something. Luna looked around, wondering what had caused her odd feeling. She shrugged, grabbed a cup, and picked up the ladle.

When she brought up the ladle, a crystalline ball sat in the cup, almost pink from the punch. "What in the- yay!" she said, cheering as she dried off the crystal with a napkin. "That was quick. Now to find the others."

Kyle sauntered over to Luna, his eyes widening when he saw the crystal. "All right, Luna! You found the crystal! Now, uh, do we have to leave?"

"The sooner we leave the closer we are to getting rid of the blood lock," said Luna.

Kyle frowned. "And when I actually find decent competition for my belching talents."

Luna smacked Kyle. "Let's go."

Mia and Alex headed over to the table where Luna and Kyle were arguing. "What's going on?" asked Alex.

"I found the crystal, yet Kyle's reluctant to leave," said Luna.

"But these guys are AWESOME belchers!" said Kyle. "I CAN'T pass up this opportunity!"

"EEEEEEEE!!"

Suddenly, the music stopped, people froze, and all became confused. The ball room was dead silent for close to a minute. A murmur went over the crowd, all asking the same question: "What was that?" Most shrugged and resumed the party as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

"Something's wrong," said Alex. "Let's check it out."

"Great, we've gotten MORE than enough attention," said Jessica. After a woman sat down to read a book at the table Nash was hiding under, she was sent flying across the library room, hitting her head. The reluctantly married couple had left their hiding spots so Jessica could heal up the woman. But by then, a squadron of security guards had them surrounded.

"Jess, do you have any ideas?" hissed Nash.

"No," said Jess. "Try using Spark Ball, or Sleep or something!"

"Sleep!" said Nash. "Hey, I got something for you! Special Delivery!" In a bright flash of pink, the guards were fast asleep. "Now we go and find the others, then worry about the crystal."

Once again they were forced to retreat their search and look for either another hiding spot or their friends. "This is a nightmare, this is REAL bad," Jessica said.

"Well no- GAH! More of them!" said Nash. Now, they were surrounded. 

"You don't have much of a choice on what to do!" said Jessica. "So do something!"

Nash looked over the people. "The only thing that will hit them all is Thunder Thrust, but that'll kill them!" he said. 

"They're gonna kill us," said Jessica. She suddenly latched onto the mage. "I'M SCARED! I DON'T WANNA DIE!"

Nash tried to pry Jessica off while trying to come up with a plan at the same time. The security guards were slowly closing in on them, hints of anger and intent in their eyes. Then, Nash came up with an idea. "Jessica, you ARE in a blood lock, and all of these security guards are men."

Jessica looked around, grinned, and let go of her iron grip on Nash, who was pleased that his circulation began to circulate again. Jessica simply went around, tapping security guards, causing them to fly in several different directions. But more kept coming, and they were starting to attack Nash, who wasn't having much luck with his Spark Balls or Sleep spells. 

"NASH! JESSICA! WE HAVE THE CRYSTAL! GET OUT OF THERE!"

Jessica jerked slightly when she felt Nash loop one of his arms around one of her arms. "What are you doing?!"

"Getting us out of here," said Nash, playing with the watch to teleport them back to the In Between.

The In Between was oddly quiet. Alex, Kyle, Luna, Mia, and Willamina were having a discussion, asking Nash and Jessica to stay out of it. "It wasn't our fault," said Jessica. "It was purely self defense."

"But we caused a huge raucous," said Nash. "They're probably going to ask us to stay here until Willamina has enough power to get rid of this accursed blood lock."

"Stay here!?" said Jessica, standing up. "What do you mean, stay here?! They need our help!"

"But both times they've found a crystal we've gotten into trouble," said Nash. "And if I'm right, which I think I am, it'll only be for a few more trips."

Jessica sat down. "Maybe you're right. For once. We DID cause a lot of trouble, didn't we?" she said. "But it's going to get boring around here!"

Nash shrugged. "There's bound to be more in this place than just what we've seen. And I'm sure Willamina could use some help around here."

"You can cook," said Jessica. 

"Well, yeah, that, and maybe help her with research she needs. But only if they're doing what I think they are," he said, just as the others came out to the main room. Both sat up from shock, then settled back down as everyone started to take seats. Except for Alex, who was standing before the two. He then began to pace. 

"Now, we all know you two got into a lot of trouble back there," said Alex.

"Yes," said Jessica. "We're sorry about that but-"

Alex held up his hand. "I'm not mad. It really wasn't your fault. But-"

"-you want us to stay here until this whole nightmare is over," finished Nash.

"In a word, yes," said Alex. "Not to make you guys feel inferior, but, a lot of these worlds don't know anything about magic and blood locks and that kind of thing, and it'll only be for a few more trips."

"Understood," said Jessica. "We'll find something to do here."

Willamina took a thoughtful pose. "Well, I suppose I could find something constructive for you two so you can keep busy," she said.

"Constructive? You mean we can't be destructive?" Nash said sarcastically.

"Jerk," said Jessica, elbowing him in the stomach. 


	8. Episode Eight

Episode Eight: Non-Adventures in the In Between

"Hey, Kyle, take care of Mia for me, will you?" asked Nash. Kyle smiled, giving Nash a thumbs up. It was the very next day, and Alex, Luna, Mia, and Kyle were preparing to go to the next realm while Jessica and Nash stayed behind.

"Only if you promise to take care of Jess," said Kyle.

Willamina sighed. "Stick together, though. It seems as if splitting up has done more harm than good for you all."

"No kidding," said Mia. "Nash, please behave."

"What?!" asked Nash, looking hurt and confused. Mia laughed and sent him a smile.

"We'll see you when we get back," said Luna. "Try not to kill each other between now and then."

Jessica raised an eyebrow, her ears rising with it. "Are you sure we can keep that promise, Luna?"

Alex rolled his eyes. "They'll be fine, let's get going. Willamina? If something goes wrong, they're at your mercy," he said.

"I'll go hard on them, okay?" said the Keeper of the Realms. "All right, this realm has been known for pirates, so be careful!"

"Pirates aren't a problem!" said Jessica, snorting with a laugh.

"Maybe we should wait for Jessica before we go there," said Kyle. "She'd be better with pirates considering her father was one."

Willamina bit her bottom lip. "All right, that's a good point. Let's see. . . I'll just send you to a world known for killer vegetables."

"Sounds interesting," said Alex. "Tossed salad, anyone?"

"Yeah, sure, have fun," said Willamina. With that, they one by one stepped through the magic mirror. Once Luna picked up the rear, Willamina shut off the mirror and turned to the remaining two. "All right, aside from magic, cooking, healing, and scaring the crap out of poor Nash here with death threats, what else can you do?"

The two exchanged looks for a few seconds, turned to Willamina, and shrugged. "I could help with any research or paperwork you need done," said Nash. 

"I don't really have research or paperwork to do," she said. "And I'd say help pinpoint more realms with crystals, but, that takes no time at all, and I don't want you breaking my instruments."

Jessica snorted. "Just keep him away from airship engines and he won't destroy anything," she said. Nash showed his distaste the joke, causing the beastwoman to snicker.

"Not funny," he said. Jessica grinned slyly, snickering. 

Willamina sighed heavily. "All right, I'll call you if I need you," she said. "Go do. . . whatever."

"Fine, I have yet to fully explore this place," said Jessica. "I'll turn up sometime later. Bye!"

Nash had discovered that not only was Willamina's library large, but a fountain of valuable knowledge to indulge in. Histories of thousands of realms were at his fingertips. Tales of brave heroes, incredible technology, and noble royal families.

But, Nash had chosen a book filled with comics instead.

"Wow," he said. "Calvin gets into some interesting trouble."

"So, you've been reduced to comics?"

"Jess, I'm reading," Nash said.

"Very intelligent reading. Ha! He tracked dog poop into the house, that's a riot! 'Where's the hose!' Nash, for a wuss magician, you've got good taste in humor," she said, bursting out into laughing hysterics. 

Nash turned to see that his involuntary wife had just come from swimming, as she was wearing a bright yellow bathing suit with a towel wrapped around her waist. Plus, her hair was still damp. "Willamina has a bunch of them, if you're interested."

"Ooo, goody!" said Jessica. "Where?! I love comics!"

Nash rolled his eyes and pointed her to the shelf containing the comic collections. Jessica placed a finger to her chin as she looked over the titles. "Hmm, should I choose Garfield, Peanuts, or Dilbert?"

"Don't choose Dilbert," said Nash. "It's a little over our heads technology wise."

"Oh, I'm sure I could- what's a fax machine?" asked Jessica. 

The mage coughed. "I told you so."

Jessica stuck her tongue out. "I'll try Peanuts," she said. She opened the book and her eyes widened. "Oh! So that's what a Home Rum Hitter is for. It's used in some sort of a game!"

"A game? That was a lethal weapon!" said Nash.

"No, you apparently use it to hit a ball that's thrown at you," said Jessica. "I'll go ask Willamina about that."

"Ask me about what?"

"Willamina, what exactly IS a Home Run Hitter?" asked Jessica, pointing at the picture.

"Oh, baseball," she said. "Baseball is game that some of the realms play. It's fun! I'm assuming you're talking about the stick? That's a baseball bat. You use it to hit the baseball."

"But it's supposed to hit a home run," said Nash.

"That's what you want."

"But they throw baseballs," said Jessica. "I'm confused!"

Willamina sighed heavily. "Let me explain it. . ."

". . .and that's the game of baseball," said Willamina.

"So they aren't weapons?" said Nash.

Willamina shook her head. "They're extremely hard and can be used as weapons, but they're meant to be used for the game," she said.

"Yeah, cause Nash delivered a nice hit to one of the Disciples' heads when we tried to escape BEFORE we got married," said Jessica. "That was funny, until we walked out surrounded by Elvina and her followers."

Willamina blinked. "I didn't know he had it in him," she mumbled.

"I was desperate," said Nash. "I wanted out of there. You don't realize what it was like, or, do you?"

"I have a decent idea," said the Keeper of the Realms. "Well, it's almost lunch time. Nash?"

"Sure, what do you want?" he asked.

"Food?" suggested Jessica.

Nash sighed. "Since you seem to be obsessing over food, I'll let you choose. You do have recipe books, right?"

"Of course I do, I'm just horrible with using them," said Willamina.

"Mmm, this looks yummy," said Jessica. "But this looks good, too."

Nash stared at Jessica lazily. "Make up your mind."

Jessica whimpered. "But there's so much to choose from!!"

"Then close your eyes and put your finger on something and I'll make that," said Nash. "All right?"

Jessica placed one of her hands over her eyes and pointed at something. "Pizza," she said. "That sounds good."

"Pizza? I've never made that before. Is there a picture?" asked Nash. Jessica flipped to the page and pointed at the picture. "Oh, we saw those before we were tricked by the Disciples. They seemed like they were popular."

"Let's try it," said Jessica. "I'll help."

"How about not?" said Nash.

"Why not?" said Jessica.

"I remember Kyle's story about the Exlax Cookies, Jessica," he replied. 

"Aw, but this doesn't involve chocolate chunks!" she said. "It's cheese and tomatoes and a flour!"

"Better be safe than poisoned," said Nash. "Wait outside."

Jessica gave Nash the Sad Puppy Dog Face routine. "Please?"

"It isn't going to work, Jessica," said Nash. "Don't even try it."

"He didn't fall for the Sad Puppy Dog Face routine?" said Willamina.

"Nope, not at all," said Jessica. "He's immune to it!"  
"Probably because he's not in love with you aside from perhaps a friend," said Willamina. "That or he's an ice cube."

Jessica shook her head. "He isn't. I've seen him around Mia. He'd easily lay down his life for hers. Like Kyle would for me."

Willamina stared at the floor. "I felt that, once. I had a young lover. And he did lay his life down for me. It was soon after I became the Keeper of the Realms."

Jessica's eyes widened. "Why?"

"I wish to now discuss it, please," begged Willamina. The normally cheerful, charismatic woman had suddenly become sad and forlorn. "David. . ."

The young priestess narrowed her eyes. "I'm sorry to say I don't have anything to say for condolences but. . ."

"No, no, it's all right," she said. "I just. . . miss him."

"I'm sure that from beyond the grave, his spirit still loves you," said Jessica.

"But that was over a thousand years ago," said Willamina. 

Jessica gasped. "A, a, thousand, years?" she said.

Willamina laughed. "Oh, I forgot to mention I'm immortal, didn't I? I'm just so used to the fact I don't really think about it."

"I, I guess so," said Jessica. "Wow, so you're REALLY old."

"You could say that," said Willamina. "But that's besides the point. The original point of our conversation was Nash being immune to the Sad Puppy Dog Face routine."

"How DOES he do that?" asked Jessica.

"We'll find out," said Willamina. "Then perhaps we'll throw him into the pond or something."

Jessica shook her head. "I'll have Mia pick the poison. She knows him better in that way, at least. And besides, it can't be TOO bad. He's making lunch."

"Speaking of which, the pizza smells good," said Willamina. "Like it's almost done."

"Food. . ." said Jessica. "I'm going in."

"I'll go with you," said Willamina.

Nash smiled at the pizza. "Perfection," he said. "Now, how do I cut this thing up?"

"IT'S DONE!"

Nash was knocked aside by Jessica, who now staring at the pizza hungrily. "Jessica! It just came out of the oven! It's still hot."

"Well, when's it going to be ready to eat?!" she asked impatiently, jumping up and down.

"I don't know, probably about ten minutes or so. Go wait with Willamina, I'll bring it out soon, okay? Or, how about this? Go get plates and set the table, okay?" suggested Nash.

"Got it!" said Jessica, beginning to tear through Willamina's cabinets in search of the requested plates. 

Nash found a knife, lightly ran his finger over the blade, and cut into the pizza. He'd seen the people in the first realm they'd visited eating it in triangles, so he was going to make triangles as well.

"Hey, Nash, did you know Willamina's immortal?" asked Jessica.

"I kinda guessed that. I mean, she seems to be kind of smart. How old?"

"Her last boyfriend died over a thousand years ago."

Nash whistled. "So then she's REALLY old. Looks great, though."  
"Do you want the pink plates or the blue plates?" asked Jessica.

"Either one works," he said.

"Pink!"

Nash sighed heavily. "Jessica, what did you eat this morning?"

"This cereal that Willamina called Sugar Flakes," she said. Jessica watched curiously as Nash nodded to himself, mumbling something. "What? Was it something I said?"

"Nothing," he said. "I'll handle drinks."

"Okay," said Jessica, happily bringing the plates into the dinning room area. The mage then picked up the tray containing their lunch and brought it out to the dinning room, where both Willamina and Jessica were waiting eagerly for him to set it down.

After all that remained of the pizza were several strands of cheese stuck to the pan, they heard activity coming from the area of the mirror room. "They're back already?" said Willamina. "Wow, that was fast."

Alex walked in, covered from head to toe in red. "Alex!" said Jessica. "By the Goddess what happened!? Why didn't Luna-"

"It's tomato," he explained. "Lots, and lots, of tomato." He laid the next crystal, also covered in tomato, on the table. "You said killer vegetables, not GIANT killer vegetables."

Kyle walked in next, covered in what appeared to be guacamole. "Those avocados are strong," he said. "Nachos, anyone?"

"Are Mia and Luna all right?"

"Aside from being covered in spinach and sweet potato goo, just fine," said Alex. "Willamina, I don't think you want the drains in the bathroom clogged up. Anywhere else we can clean up?"

"Pond," said Willamina. "Rinse off, then get cleaned up."

"You guys look funny," said Nash.

"I'm sure that if you were covered in cabbage and Jessica was head to toe in carrot mush, you'd look funny, too," said Kyle. "So, when we get outside do we just jump in?"

"Yes," said Willamina. She held back a few laughs. "You both look ridiculous."

"I'm sure they're aware of that, Willamina," said Jessica. "I'm gonna go see what Mia and Luna look like."

"I'm never going to look at a salad the same way again," said Nash, shaking his head.

"Not funny," said Alex. "Well, that's three down and four to go."

Willamina nodded. "Do you plan to stay the night, or do you wish to head to another world today?"  
"Funny you should ask, we were talking about doing that."  
"What? Why?" asked Jessica.

"The sooner we get these crystals, the sooner you and Nash get released from the blood lock, simple as that," said Kyle. "And I can hold you without fear of another flying lesson."

Jessica lowered her eyes. "I miss you, too."

Nash sighed heavily. "As long as Mia and Luna don't come in contact with me, I can talk to them after they get cleaned up, right?"

"Of course," said Alex. "I'd say about every hour or so she saw something that reminded her of you and she started getting all sad."

Nash laughed. "Yeah, I guess if the roles were switched I'd be the same way, wouldn't I?"

"Why would Elvina want to marry Mia and Jessica? Wouldn't that make them thespians?"

"Kyle. . ." said Jessica, whimpering at his pathetic comment. "I'm not sure which I'm more upset with."

"What!?" asked Kyle before Jessica left the room. 

Mia sighed heavily, looking in the mirror in her room. She frowned, feeling lonesome. She saw someone open the door and her frown nearly deepened. "Nash, doesn't the blood-"

"Nothing happens if I just want to talk," he said, taking a seat on her bed. "Nice. Not nearly as little-girlish as your old room at the Guild was."

Mia laughed. "I've grown up, you know that."

Nash smiled. "Yeah, the fight with Ghaleon sure showed that. It was definitely a coming of age experience for us all. One especially hard for you and me," he said. 

"You looked up to Ghaleon as your teacher and master, but I saw him as the only father figure I could have hoped to have," said Mia. "It's a mystery why he went crazy like he did."

"He just didn't understand that Dyne was doing what he thought was right, and that we didn't need Althena all the time. Looks like what turned into a lifetime long vacation turned into an eternal lay-off," he said.

"It is kind of sad, but Althena's magic still exists in Lunar," said Mia. "Speaking of which, I wonder how my mother and everyone else back home is taking our disappearance."

Nash shrugged. "I'm sure that Willamina has something planned. Maybe she'll go and explain the situation to them personally or something."

"Hopefully," said Mia. She smiled. "But what we need to worry about right now is getting rid of that marriage."

"I prefer calling it a 'blood lock'. Kyle's probably pissed that he's gonna be Jessica's second husband as it is. Heck, if we ever got hitched I'm sure you aren't thrilled over the idea of being my second wife," said Nash.

"Oh, it wasn't intentional, and if I'm going to settle a score with someone, it's that Disciple woman, Elvina," said Mia, looking VERY angry. 

"No, I should handle that," said Nash. "She's extremely powerful, and I don't want you to get hurt."

"Then what makes you so sure you could take her on yourself?" said Mia.

Nash took on a look of confusion. "Uh. . ."

"We'll kick her butt as a team. You, me, Alex, Luna, Jessica, and Kyle," said Mia. "And we WON'T loose."

"You sound so sure, Mia," said Nash. "I wish I was that sure of myself right about now."

"Once we break the spell you will be," said Mia. "And maybe we'll get a chance to finish what we TRIED to start."

Nash's cheeks turned a bright crimson red. "Well, I, uh, I mean, are you, or, do you, uh-"

Mia laughed. "Well, I have to go. See you when I get back," she said, smiling almost seductively. Nash almost melted, but he forced himself to stand up and follow to watch her off. 

"So now we're going to a world a lot like the one we went to first, but there could be freakish monsters lurking around anyways?" said Kyle.

"Exactly. Be careful, and if you see a monster, don't hesitate to use your magic against it," said Willamina. "The only reason I'm not waiting for Nash and Jessica to go with you here is because there is a branch of the Disciples here, and they may try to steal the orbe to allow them to transport between worlds."

"Don't worry, Willamina, we'll be careful and bring home another crystal to add to your collection," said Kyle, giving Willamina a humorous salute. "We'll be back tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" asked Willamina. "Your confidence is rapidly increasing, Kyle, this isn't a good thing."

"I'm sure we can handle it, Willamina," said Luna. "We'll see you all when we get back!" With that final comment, their friends left again.


	9. Episode Nine

Episode Nine: Miranda

__

Far off in another realm. . .

A long figure walked through the woods, her senses telling her that something was amiss. "Something is wrong. . . I can feel it."

Her eyes caught a glimmer in a bed of mushrooms. "Hmm? That's odd," she said, walking over to the mushrooms. She knelt down and picked up the object that had caught her eyes. A glimmering, milky white orbe lay in his hand. "Willamina. . ."

The woman stood up, glancing around. "Something has happened to the Crystal. I must find Willamina and discover what has caused this!" The woman held her hand up, snapped her fingers, and an ornately decorated blue staff fell into her hand. "Bring me to Willamina in the In Between!"

_"Mia, are, are you sure?" asked Nash. _

"Of course I'm sure," said Mia. "I, I know I'm ready for this. I've been thinking about it for a very long time."

"You have?" asked Nash. "About us-"

"Making love? Absolutely. I told you that I love you and I mean that," said Mia. "And I feel ready for the next step." She ran her hand lightly over his arm, smiling knowingly at him.

Nash blinked. "But Mia, what it-" 

Mia shook her head, placing a finger to her lover's lips. "Shh, don't talk, just feel, please," she said. "I just want to forget about the guild for a few hours and just concentrate on something I want to be doing."

"I, I can understand that, but are you sure that this is the right decision?" asked Nash. "I don't want to do this if you aren't absolutely one hundred fifty percent sure that this is what you want. I'd never forgive myself if I hurt you like that. . ." He ran the back of his hand up and down her cheek. "You're too beautiful for that."

Mia smiled, resting her head on Nash's shoulder. "I appreciate your concern, and I am-"

"Mia!"

Nash cursed under his breath. "Your mother calls. . ." he said.

Mia frowned. "We'll finish this later," she said, giving his a quick kiss before leaving.

Nash woke up, then fell back down onto his pillow. He mumbled into the pillow, hugging it tightly. He sat up, yawning. "Whht tmm is it?" he said, trying to speak through a yawn. The dream had been of something that had nearly happened between him and Mia. _I don't think I've ever, ever wanted her this bad before, ever since I first met her, _he thought to himself. 

He suddenly heard a shimmering sound from outside of his room. "What is that?" he asked, standing up and going to investigate. Glad he'd fallen asleep in his jeans, he darted down the hallway to see Willamina and a strange woman hugging each other like old friends. Nash blinked, wondering sleepily what was going on.

Willamina turned to see Nash. "Nash? What are you doing up?"

"What are you doing up and who's she?" he asked.

"I asked you first," retorted Willamina.

"Well. . . I had a dream and woke up, then heard something and went to investigate, Your turn."

"This is an old friend of mine, Miranda," said Willamina. Miranda was indeed, strange. Her outfit was similar to Willamina's, only more pink and orange than blue and brown. She also carried a tall, blue staff. "Miranda, this is Nash."

"He's cute, you chose a good new flame," said Miranda.

Willamina face faulted. "Um, Nash isn't my boyfriend."

"You're engaged? Or even married!? Oh, congratulations!" said Miranda, hugging Willamina. Then, she frowned. "Why didn't you-"

"Miranda, Nash and I aren't romantically involved at all. Could you please-"

"Willamina, who's that?" asked Jessica, sleepily standing over by Nash in a large, blue and white shirt. 

"Her name is Miranda, she's a friend of Willamina, and thinks I'm Willamina's love interest," said Nash.

"Sorry, Nash and Willamina aren't like that," said Jessica.

Miranda blinked. "Well, your two friends there are nice, but something has happened to the crystal," she said, revealing another crystal particle. "I found this near my home. Willamina, what happened?"

Willamina shook her head. "Nash, Jessica, and their friends got lost in a cave, somehow found the crystal, and after it decided to investigate two of their friends, they blew it up," she said. "I'm having them going through the realms collecting the pieces."

"Well, it was an honest mistake," said Miranda.

"They're good kids, but I'm afraid I caused them ANOTHER problem," said Willamina. She then looked over at Nash and Jessica. "Between the two of you you're wearing one outfit. Nash, put a shirt on and Jessica, get some pants."

"I'm wearing a pair of shorts under this," said Jessica. She turned to her husband and grinned. "You need to put a shirt on."

Nash looked down and realized he was, indeed, wearing only his jeans. "Oops, I'll be right back."

Once Nash returned after grabbing a sweatshirt out of the wardrobe that Willamina had provided them with and quickly brushing his hair, he headed back out into the main living area, where Willamina and Miranda were sitting next to each other, talking and joking about something.

"I remember that! You looked so cute in that outfit!" said Willamina.

"Oh, I know! I'm telling you, the guy with the tight butt sent me some serious vibes that night, Willie, and you know we made it to first base," said Miranda.

Jessica was seating on one of the other couches, cuddled up to one of the arm rests. Nash sat on her other side. Jessica sent him a look, acknowledging his presence, and turned her eyes back to Willamina.

Willamina turned back to Nash and Jessica. "Oops! I'm sorry, I forgot all about you. It's just been a few hundred years since we've seen each other, that's all," said the Keeper of the Realms. "Miranda can travel between realms with her staff. She's a useful spy for me."

"Really?" said Jessica.

"Oh, there's a lot she needs to know that I tell her," said Miranda. "Interesting, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is," said Jessica. 

"Well, I guess I'd better tell you how I screwed up," said Willamina.

"Willamina, what happened wasn't your fault," said Nash.

Miranda turned to Willamina. "From what Nick here-"

"Uh, my name is Nash," said the mage.

"Right, right, from what this guy's saying something pretty bad happened that you didn't have a lot of control over," said Miranda. "What happened?"

"Well, I was really mad and threatened to kill them," said Willamina. "After one of them, Alex, offered to help fix the jewel and the others agreed, I separated them and told them to find each other and the crystal."

"Uh huh, normal procedure," said Miranda.

"Well, that was where Elvina's branch of the Disciples live," said Willamina. "The Disciples tricked Nash and Jessica into thinking that they'd offer them a warm place to sleep when they actually wanted to use them for a ritual."

"They put us through a lot of enchantments and beatings," said Nash. "But what the real problem that she created was a blood-locked marriage."

"Ugh, I hate those damn things," said Miranda. "So you try to hang out with your non-male buds and they get a nasty shock?"

Jessica frowned. "That's another complication. Nash and I were never romantically involved. In fact, I was engaged to someone else and he was in a fairly young relationship with someone else."

"Oh, that's even worse!" said Miranda. "There's nothing worse than being forced into a blood lock without any romantic feelings."

"That's why we're staying here and the others are going out," said Jessica. "We're causing trouble."

"But it's not your fault," said Miranda. "In fact, I can probably help you two. I didn't loose any of my power, and I'm immune to blood lock affects."

"You are?" said Nash.

"Sure, Nate."

"Nash."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, but I can probably break the spell," she said. "Tomorrow morning you'll both be blood lock free."

"Thank you so much!" said Jessica, getting to her feet. "Did you hear that, Neil? I'm not gonna be married to you anymore!"

Nash frowned. "You're screwing my name up on purpose, Jackie."

"Shut up, Bob."

"Emily."

"Ted."

"Louise."

"Fred."

"Betty."

"Quit it, you two," said Willamina. "Go back to sleep and tomorrow she'll see what she can do about fixing you both up."

"All right, I need a few things before we begin. First, you have to be dressed in whatever clothing it was that you were married in," said Miranda. The group was gathered in Willamina's dining room, eating pancakes Nash had made.

"Sure, no problem," said Jessica.

Nash whimpered. "Kyle threw them out after they-"

"I saved them," said Jessica. 

"Why!?" asked Nash. The look he'd sent his soon to be ex-wife was filled with confusion and alarm.

Jessica shrugged. "I thought they might come in handy."

"Good, good, good, now I need a green and a blue knife," said Miranda. "You two go get dressed in those while Willamina and I hunt down those knives."

"Not more slicing," said Nash.

"That's the whole ritual. I have to remove Jessica's blood from your body, Noah."

"For the last time, my name is Nash," he grumbled, standing up. "I really am thankful for what you're doing but could you please try to remember my name?"

"At this point she's teasing you, Nash," said Willamina. "Just go ahead, okay?"

Jessica stood up. "I'll go change, bring Nash his clothes, and wait for him to change," she said. "See you in a few minutes."

Willamina had already left to retrieve the knives. "You were traumatized by knives as a child, weren't you?"

Nash looked around nervously. "Well, yes."

"How?"  
"I don't want to say," he said. 

"I need to know. If it's serious, I need to adjust the ceremony," said Miranda.

Nash gulped. "When I was six, someone turned a knife on me, that's all."

"Oh?" asked Miranda. "Someone close to you?"

"No really," he said nervously. Before Miranda could ask another question, Jessica returned, gave Nash the outfit, and he gladly walked off. "Thanks, Jessica."

Jessica scratched her head, turning to Miranda, who shrugged. "I don't understand him. You'd have a better guess than I would."

"Well, I've got them," said Willamina, returning with two knives similar to the ones that Elvina had used. "Well, you sure changed fast."

Jessica smiled. "I was excited about it. So close, SO CLOSE!" she said. "It won't be long until I don't have to worry about unintentionally hurting Alex and Kyle."

"So now we just wait for Norman and we'll get this underway," said Miranda.

"Just because he isn't here, his name is Nash," said Jessica. "Say it with me. Nash."

"Nash."

"Good."

"Nash."

Willamina laughed. "She's got it."

"Yeah, finally," said Jessica. She leaned back in the chair she was sitting in. "So, tell me, what exactly are you doing to be doing?"

"Draining his blood from your body and vice versa," said Miranda. "That's the tricky part; draining just their blood and only their blood, which is why it need high grade magic."

Once Nash was finished changing Miranda had them sit next to each other. "All right, let's start with Nash here and get it over with," said Miranda. Nash gulped as Miranda clutched his hand, chanting something. Suddenly, his hand felt really fuzzy.

"What-"

"All of Jessica's blood is in your hand right now," said Miranda, slowly making a new incision. She held it over a bowl, causing the blood to drip down into a crimson pool. "When it stops dripping, all of Jessica's blood will have left your body, but it's not broken until you've both been drained." She rested his opened palm over the bowl and the repeated the process for Jessica. 

"How long does this usually take?" asked Jessica. 

"Usually about an hour," said Miranda. "Don't worry. It's not as bad as it seems. Just keep your hand over the bowl, and if you have an itch, you have a free hand."

"Now I know why she told us to go to the bathroom before we started," said Nash. "Good thing I complied."

Miranda sighed heavily. "Whatever, just sit tight for a while."

"So we just sit here for an hour waiting for all the blood to drain?" said Jessica. 

"Yup. And no food or drink during that time," said Miranda. Jessica whimpered, causing Nash to roll his eyes. "Just. . . discuss something while you wait."

"Suggestions?" asked Jessica.

"Oh, just shoot the breeze on anything! I know, how's about sharing amusing childhood stories?" said Miranda. "That's always a good conversation starter."

"When are we done?" asked Nash.

"The hand heals up, but don't lift up your hand. You have to keep it and the bowl down," said Miranda. "Try looking under your hand and seeing if there's any blood dripping. Start looking for that when about an hour's passed."

". . . by Althena herself, Kyle looked SOO funny!" said Jessica, laughing at the memory. "My dad thought it was cute, but Kyle's father wasn't too happy."

"Now I know why Kyle doesn't mind cross-dressing so much," said Nash. "You made him do it as a kid."

"What's even funnier is that he LIKED it!" said Jessica. "Okay, I've shared a pet story, two Kyle stories, and a story about my Dad making a fool of himself, so, what's about you? I'm sure there must be something you have to say about some time you tried to impress Mia. Or what about when you were a kid?"

Nash froze. "Uh, when I was a kid? Oh, I, uh, had a very, very boring childhood. Now my Mia stories are good, like the time I tried to climb up the vines leading to her room to give her a bouquet of roses, lost my footing, and fell into a water fountain. I was SOOO lucky that she bought my lost Starlight theory," he said.

Jessica raised an eyebrow. "You sure seemed to avoid that childhood question very well. You're hiding something, aren't you?"

Nash turned a bright red. "What makes you say that?"

"You're bright red, you were quick to avoid childhood stories, and you're shaking," said Jessica. "I won't interrogate you about that, but try stopping me from telling Mia about this."

Nash shook her head. "No, please don't," he said. "Look, I had a BAD childhood, okay? I didn't like in some big, fancy Magic Guild to the Guildmaster. I did have to work to where I got as Ghaleon's apprentice, which on the way up looked good. I didn't grow up spoiled by my father while living in a big mansion. I didn't have kind, loving parents like Alex's parents who would've let me keep some strange, smart-mouthing flying cat. Please, just-"

"Okay, if you don't want to talk about it, I won't make you," said Jessica. She looked into the bowl. Her hand was in the way of her getting a good view. "I can't tell if my hand is done dripping. It's been about an hour, hasn't it?"

Nash looked into his bowl. "I think I still see a little blood dripping out," he said. "Miranda said that we're done when our hands seal back up, right?"

"Right," said Jessica. "Think about it, just a little longer and we're marriage free!"

"Yeah, that'll be one of the happiest days in my life," said Nash.

Jessica shot him a look. "What!?"

"Jess, you're a good friend, I'll admit that," said Nash. "But I love Mia, and it was a PAIN not being able to come into any sort of physical contact with anyone but other guys and you."

"Point taken," said Jessica. "Okay, tell me a Mia story."

Nash bit his bottom lip and closed one of his eyes. "You know that Mia's been obsessed with Gorgons since she was little, right?"

"Yeah," said Jessica. "Until Damon, I was pretty sure she was over that."

"She has a Gorgon doll that she sleeps with," said Nash. "So once, I tried to catch a live one for her. This was when I was like, fifteen. So Ghaleon told me to try the Weird Woods and that I had to be careful. In fact, he gave me one of his good weapons for me to use. I don't remember what it was though."

"And?" asked Jessica.

"Well, I thought that catching a baby Gorgon would be smart, since then it could be trained easier. So I found a nest after searching for hours and found like, six baby Gorgons. I took one and, well, Mommy Gorgon wasn't happy," said Nash. 

"Oh my gosh!" said Jessica, laughing at the retelling of the encounter. "What happened?"

"I dropped the baby and ran for my life. My spells had just about no effect on her," said Nash. "I came back to Vane scratched up, at a loss of most of my health and magic, which was like, twenty some at the time, and ready to pass out."

Jessica shook her head. "The things you do for Mia's love, Nash, really."

"You know, if I tried that now I bet I could succeed," said Nash. "And I wouldn't get chased out of the woods."

"Yeah, but you're taking the baby away from its mother," said Jessica.

"Right," said Nash. "Unless I find a baby without a mother."

"You do that," said Jessica. "I'm checking again."

"But it was less than five minutes ago that I checked on that!" said Nash.

As if on cue, Miranda and Willamina came in. "So, how's it going?" asked Miranda.

"Even though we looked a few minutes ago, Jess wants to check again," said Nash.

Miranda placed two fingers on the back of Nash's hand. "It's just now finishing up. Just a few more seconds and. . . I now pronounce you divorced."

"YIPPE!" said Jessica, jumping up and dancing excitedly. Nash soon joined her, the two giving each other a hug and shouting about it finally being over. Willamina and Miranda couldn't help but laugh. 

"You know, I'm getting rid of these once and for all," said Jessica. "Unless we might need them again."

"You never know," said Miranda. "I'd keep them, just in case."

Nash groaned. "All I care about is that I'm a free man again," he said. 

Once the two were finally feeling normal again, Jessica was, for some reason, in the mirror room. _Why did I come in here? _she thought to herself.

Suddenly, a shimmer sound was heard as Luna emerged from the mirror, distraught and crying hysterically. She took note that Alex, Mia, and Kyle weren't following her. "Luna!" she cried, kneeling next to the former goddess. "Luna, are you all right?"

"Oh Jessica, things just got really, really bad," she said. She produced an orbe. "Here, I at least got this."

"Luna, what happened?" asked Jessica. Luna was taking in deep breaths, trying very hard to calm down. "Luna, I don't care about the orbes right now. If it's the whole blood lock you're worried about, a friend of Willamina's fixed that, so what the heck happened and where are the others?"

By now, Nash, Willamina, and Miranda had gathered in the room. Luna finally spoke up. "When we got to the crystal, these, goblins, attacked us. Alex gave me the orbe and told me to get help," he said.

"What?" asked Nash. "Mia and the others are in trouble?!"

"Yes," said Luna, nodding grimly. "One of the monsters destroyed Kyle's watch and Alex gave me his." She held up the watch. "I'm afraid, I'm really afraid. Mia's magic wasn't doing a lot of harm, and. . ."

"Calm down," said Jessica. "We'll go back with you, and we'll bust the others out."

"I can't go," said Miranda. "I'm needed back home by now."

"And I can't leave the In Between for long period of time," said Willamina. "Can you three manage it?"

"Of course we can, Willamina, I'll take good care of them," said Nash.

"Sure, but who's gonna take care of you?" asked Jessica.


End file.
